Tag - global-economy

 
 

GLOBAL ECONOMY

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings signage outside the IMF headquarters in Washington on April 9.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 12, 2026
World finance chiefs head to IMF with a sense of deja vu
Ahead of the meetings IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned that the international community is becoming less able to respond to shocks.
Pedestrians in the Ginza district of Tokyo. The U.S. and Israeli war on Iran is projected to halt developing Asia’s economic upswing, the Asian Development Bank has said.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 10, 2026
Asia economic growth to slow even if oil stabilizes, ADB warns
The U.S. and Israeli war on Iran is projected to halt developing Asia’s economic upswing.
An employee at Emerald Packaging operates a machine that prints grocery bags at the company’s facility in Union City, California, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 9, 2026
From falling U.S. wealth to Indian factory closures, oil shock raises global recession risk
As oil prices surge in the sixth week of the Iran war, businesses across the world are feeling the strain of a widening energy shock.
The U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran has left developing countries using Chinese tech and trade, like solar panels and EVs, better able to weather fallout than those relying on American-backed supply chains.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2026
Is Trump the president who lost Asia to China?
After six weeks of the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran and its ensuing counterattacks, it is the countries that bet on Chinese supply chains that are faring best.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 7, 2026
Middle East war means ‘all roads’ lead to higher prices and slower growth, IMF chief says
Even if the conflict is swiftly resolved, the International Monetary Fund is set ‌to reduce its growth forecast and bump up its outlook for inflation.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a poster showing what was described as reciprocal tariffs during an announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 2, 2025.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 1, 2026
Oil shock from war on Iran unwinds traders’ playbook since Trump’s tariffs
Fallout from the conflict for energy markets and global trade is forcing a shift away from popular, crowded trades that had come to define markets.
Trump-era U.S. aluminum tariffs have backfired, driving up costs, reducing domestic production, diverting Canadian supply and leaving the country vulnerable to global disruptions like the Iran war.
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2026
The world’s dumbest tariff has been revealed
So far, this is a standard U.S. tariff story, but aluminum isn’t a standard product.
Delegates attend the World Trade Organization 14th ministerial meeting in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 30, 2026
WTO talks end in deadlock after Brazil blocks deal over e-commerce duties
The WTO countries are negotiating an extension to a moratorium on customs duties for electronic transmissions such as digital downloads.
Famed biologist and author Paul Ehrlich predicted disaster from overpopulation. But today the challenge is declining fertility, with governments in Asia and Europe seeking ways to boost births to maintain economic and social stability.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2026
Paul Ehrlich’s ‘Population Bomb’ never went off but did great harm
This isn’t the world that Ehrlich, who died on March 13, envisaged when he published “The Population Bomb” in 1968
The U.S. health care sector has been expanding as baby boomers retire, Social Security rolls rise and medical advances extend lifespans.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2026
Health care can’t be the only job in town — but it is
Health care is a labor-intensive industry that’s become more central to the economy as baby boomers retire.
Gantry cranes and shipping containers at the Yangshan Deepwater Port in Shanghai on May 14, 2025.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 24, 2026
Some Chinese exporters lift prices on rising costs due to war
Exporters across the world’s second-largest economy began raising prices last week as oil-linked costs surged and the conflict showed no sign of easing.
A semi truck driver refuels a truck with diesel fuel at a Pilot gas station in Eloy, Arizona, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 22, 2026
Shockwave of war is rippling through the global economy
The spike in energy costs and consequent threat to global consumer prices has prompted a spectrum of central-bank responses over the past few days.
Cargo containers at the terminal in Lianyungang, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, on March 17
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 22, 2026
U.S.-China ‘Board of Trade’ may help ties, but experts flag market worries
Some analysts warn that present plans could interfere with market forces, while others consider it a path to smoother coexistence.
The U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of ​Canada on Wednesday both opted to hold interest rates steady, as did the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the central banks of Switzerland and Sweden on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 20, 2026
Central banks brace for war-led inflation and ‘stagflation’ risk
Policymakers are determined to rein ‌in prices without ‌derailing still-patchy economic growth, and to avoid a “stagflation” mix of recession and price surges.
The private rocket company LandSpace's factory in Huzhou, China, on Dec. 17. China’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy integrates civilian and military capabilities, including space technologies.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2026
Take the China technology challenge seriously
China seeks to engage the rest of the world “to raise and strengthen its position within global technology ecosystems and markets.”
Volunteers prepare daily meals for people at Souk el Tayeb in Beirut on Tuesday.
WORLD
Mar 18, 2026
45 million more face hunger threat from extended Mideast war, U.N. says
The war, now in its third week, and its shockwaves on food and fuel costs could price families out of staple foods far beyond the region, the U.N.’s World Food Program said.
Generative AI is advancing so rapidly and unpredictably that governing it will require urgent collaboration across disciplines rather than leaving decisions to technologists or economists alone.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2026
Those who most need to understand AI don’t get it
Too often, discussions about AI are overly specialized or siloed between technologists, economists and other disciplines
Instead of leveraging their combined economic weight, African countries are pursuing fragmented bilateral agreements that leave them as junior partners and vulnerable to countries like China and the U.S.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2026
The new ‘scramble for Africa’ risks becoming divide and conquer
The disunity persists despite Africa’s enormous advantages, including a rapidly growing consumer market and dominant control of critical minerals essential to the global economy.
During trade talks in Paris on Sunday, Chinese officials showed openness to buying U.S. poultry, beef and non-soybean row crops.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2026
U.S. and China discuss farm goods and managed trade in ‘remarkably stable’ talks
The Paris talks touched on potential areas of agreement such as agriculture and critical minerals.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh speaks during a monetary policy conference at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, California, in May last year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 14, 2026
Warsh’s room to move at the Fed may narrow in a war-clouded outlook
Despite moves by major nations to release stockpiled oil reserves, the price of benchmark Brent Crude meanwhile remained near $100 a barrel on Friday.

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The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival