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World Bank Group

Traders work on the New York Stock Exchange floor on October 16. Photo: Getty Images / AFP

Macroscope | Why stock market confidence may just be the calm before the storm playing

The lack of financial market volatility amid economic uncertainty related to geopolitical risks should worry more people.

26 Oct 2024 - 5:34PM

Janet Yellen, senior China finance official discuss Beijing’s stimulus measures

26 Oct 2024 - 4:24PMvideocam

Outside In | Nature needs saving but where will the West find the money?

25 Oct 2024 - 6:51PMvideocam

As China urges global financial reform, Global South ties more crucial: analysts

The world’s second-largest economy is looking to balance the scales of international financial governance under a system dominated by the World Bank and IMF.

24 Oct 2024 - 8:30PMvideocam

President Xi Jinping speaks at the Brics summit in Russia on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Defend euro as China, Russia push for alternative currency: Europe’s bank chief

Next US leader also urged to weigh negative impacts of American and EU trade ‘restrictions and barriers’ on economic growth and inflation.

24 Oct 2024 - 5:16AMvideocam

Hong Kong ranks highly among world’s top business-ready economies

Government spokesman praises report by World Bank Group, says recognition underscores Hong Kong’s role as a ‘superconnector’ in global trade.

4 Oct 2024 - 10:22PM

Macroscope | Why World Bank action on looming jobs crisis points to a better way

At a time when some are intent on promoting division, maybe our only hope for progress is forward-looking institutions like the World Bank.

17 Aug 2024 - 4:30PMvideocam

People visit a job fair in in Shanghai on May 31. An estimated 1.2 billion young people in the Global South will become working-age adults in the next 10 years, yet there will not be nearly enough jobs for them without bold and urgent reforms. Photo: AFP

Opinion | How emerging nations are already dethroning the West

The Belt and Road Initiative is picking up momentum amid increasing synergy with countries in the expanding Brics grouping.

27 Jul 2024 - 4:30PM

Russia upgraded to ‘high-income country’ as war-driven economy grows

The country’s GDP grew 3.6 per cent last year amid demand for military goods and services.

3 Jul 2024 - 2:45PMvideocam

Macroscope | A fractious world is making much-needed IMF reforms harder

Great reforms seem to be born only out of major upheavals. And the IMF enjoys only as much power as its fractious owners are prepared to give it.

22 Jun 2024 - 5:24PMvideocam

Gita Gopinath (centre), first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, with her colleagues at a press briefing in Beijing on May 29. Photo: AFP

About 5.7 million in Syria live in extreme poverty, World Bank says

Two World Bank reports show that more than one in four Syrians live in extreme poverty, which was virtually non-existent before the war.

25 May 2024 - 10:30PM

Displaced Syrian children ask for international intervention to help ease their situation at the Rukban camp in southern Syria at the border with Iraq and Jordan. Photo: AFP

The View | Why the world needs a Bretton Woods 2.0

As Bretton Woods institutions falter, nations like China are pushing for reform that reflects the global reality amid challenges such as debt distress and climate change. While the most likely scenario is marginal changes to the international monetary system, multilateral collaboration should not be underestimated.

8 May 2024 - 5:22PM

Opinion | Five reasons why China should still be considered a developing country

In recent years, American politicians have been seeking to challenge China’s status as a developing country Despite building a “moderately prosperous society”, the Chinese economy is still not considered high-income, and parts of the country still face unbalanced development.

29 Apr 2024 - 7:08AM

Macroscope | Our problem is too much information and knowledge, and too little wisdom

If wisdom has a place at all, it should be within above-the-fray institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. Yet there is often scant sign of it.

27 Apr 2024 - 7:31PMvideocam

A man looks out of his home at a flooded street in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on April 16 as Pakistan floods again. The world is drowning in information amid challenges from climate change, geopolitical tensions, outright war, artificial intelligence and more. Photo: EPA-EFE

The View | IMF, World Bank must do more to defuse the bomb of poor nations’ debt

The focus is on retooling current approaches when what debt-burdened countries need is an economic re-engineering to produce more lucrative goods and innovative ways to pay down debt using commodities.

25 Apr 2024 - 8:30PMvideocam

A woman from a small village near Samre town in Tigray, Ethiopia, on May 26 last year. Ethiopia saw one of the bloodiest wars of the 21st century which led to widespread starvation. The African country has applied for debt restructuring under the G20’s Common Framework. Photo: Getty Images

The View | Why the IMF must give China and other emerging economies a greater say

The US, Europe and Japan will not gladly sacrifice their IMF quotas to give China and others more voting rights. But a failure to reform the organisation will worsen rifts and weaken its ability to deal with looming global crises.

7 Apr 2024 - 10:00AMvideocam

India, South Asia ‘squandering demographic dividend’, World Bank says

Job creation in South Asian economies is not keeping pace with the rise in the working age population, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

2 Apr 2024 - 3:40PMvideocam

Opinion | Imagine a world free from the oppression of a US-led global order

It would spell the end of the US ability to impose its will on the international community, shape other countries in its image and shift the burden of its economic crisis onto others.

28 Mar 2024 - 9:30AM

Opinion | In a risky, fragmenting world, we can all forge our own development path

Whether it’s macroeconomic modelling or export-led industrialisation, the game has changed with peak globalisation, technology diffusion and climate change. Development and how to finance it is the question, and brave countries can adopt very different models from the past.

8 Mar 2024 - 9:55PMvideocam

China’s economy holds ‘real potential’ in 2024, think tank predicts 5.3% growth

Chinese Academy of Sciences expects China’s economy to grow by 5.3 per cent this year, compared to a 4.5 per cent projection by the World Bank.

11 Jan 2024 - 9:17AM

Opinion | China-EU cooperation needed to safeguard globalisation’s future

Amid Sino-US competition, China and Europe can keep the world on a multipolar keel by cooperating in four crucial domains.

14 Dec 2023 - 5:30AMvideocam

Opinion | In a broken world, globalisation is dead. Long live globalisation lite

Tight coupling in a global world is breaking and we need a looser macro-management philosophy that allows for decentralised adjustments to different stresses and strains.

1 Dec 2023 - 10:01PMvideocam

Climate activists at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Marrakech, Morocco, on October 12. The global growth model has seen growing inequality, low productivity and an over-reliance on central bank monetary policy. Photo: Reuters

As economic momentum falters, China tries to maintain hold on global influence

Beijing sends out officials to counter this ‘peak status’ perception, acknowledging short-term problems but framing long-term economic growth as inexorable.

14 Nov 2023 - 5:32AMvideocam

Opinion | From wars to global warming, world is crying out for collective action

Amid increased geopolitical strife, our interconnected world requires a collaborative approach on global warming, wars, infrastructure, public health, trade, and more, to safeguard our shared home.

12 Nov 2023 - 3:30PMvideocam

Macroscope | The West should work with China to build infrastructure – not against it

As the West starts to find its feet with financing for its infrastructure, it would be a pity if the largesse was used to compete with China, when the global scale of the challenge calls for cooperation.

28 Oct 2023 - 8:30PMvideocam

The city of Almaty, in Kazakhstan, from where the China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang) logistics cooperation base was launched in 2014 as the first belt and road project. It has since become an important platform for products from Central Asian countries to reach seaports. Photo: Xinhua

IMF report says Chinese loans not main debt burden in sub-Saharan Africa

Beijing the largest bilateral official lender to countries in Africa but share in sub-Saharan overall sovereign debt still relatively small, according to report.

24 Oct 2023 - 5:08PMvideocam

China’s share of sub-Saharan Africa external public debt rose to about 17 per cent – or US$134 billion – in 2021, according to the IMF. Photo: Reuters

Global talks on climate ‘loss and damage’ fund end in failure ahead of COP28

Nations agreed at last year’s COP27 to set up a dedicated fund to help vulnerable countries cope with climate change but left the details for later; on Saturday, the details were deferred again.

21 Oct 2023 - 11:58PMvideocam

Macroscope | World Bank’s bold new thinking on how to finance a better world

World Bank president Ajay Banga recently spoke of the need to press private finance into service to tackle climate change and other critical objectives. While those in asset management might protest about losing their investment freedoms, his logic is hard to argue with.

21 Oct 2023 - 3:30PMvideocam

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World Bank Group

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were both created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. The World Bank’s mandate is to lend to developing countries to fund capital programs to alleviate poverty. The IMF, an organisation of almost 200 countries, helps alleviate problems among member countries. Since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, the IMF has taken part in rescues of countries such as Greece.

Chairman / President

Ajay Banga

CEO / Managing Director

Anna Bjerde

CFO / Finance Director

Anshula Kant

Industry

Banking

Website

worldbank.org

Headquarters address

1818 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C., U.S.

Year founded

1944

last updated:

30 September, 2024