Debt and climate back on IMF, WB spring meetings’ agenda

The spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are due to open on Tuesday, with two clear objectives: help countries combat climate change and assist the most indebted nations. The meetings — which will bring central bankers, finance and development ministers, academics, and representatives from the private sector and civil society together to discuss the state of the global economy — will kick off with the IMF’s publication of its updated World Economic Outlook. Even as they look ahead, the meetings will have an air of nostalgia this year, as 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of both institutions. They were born of the Bretton Woods conference, held in 1944 as allied nations sought to regulate the international financial order after World War II, which was then still raging.