When economies started tanking last year as COVID-19 spread rapidly around the globe, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund mounted their crisis response. The World Bank and IMF stepped up their lending and crediting to poorer countries and emerging economies in an effort to mitigate the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Now, one year later we can assess the impact of the responses by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to the global economic crisis — and also what comes next as countries continue to try weather this economic storm?
On the line with me to discuss how the World Bank and IMF have responded to the COVID-19 crisis and its economic fallout is Scott Morris, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
We caught up just before the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were set to take place. We kick off discussing how the World Bank sought to ramp up its spending, and why the dispersement of money has not yet matched the early commitments made by the World Bank. We then have a longer discussion about the changing role of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in global affairs and why the new Biden administration is seeking to make major reforms to these institutions.
If you have 25 minutes and want to learn how the World Bank and International Monetary Fund has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, have a listen.