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The International Monetary Fund and World Bank's semi-annual meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors begins in Washington on Monday amid escalating trade tensions between the world's two largest economies.
The gathering is overshadowed by China's recent announcement of new export restrictions on critical minerals, which drew a sharp rebuke from US President Donald Trump, who threatened retaliatory tariffs of 100 percent on Beijing. The news triggered a sharp decline in US stock market futures after hours on Friday. Just days before the meeting, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva stated that the global economy is performing "better than feared, but worse than we need.”
She added that the Fund now expects global growth to slow "only slightly this year and next," propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced economies, emerging markets and developing countries.
The annual meetings in Washington will take place at the IMF and World Bank's headquarters, situated just a stone's throw from the White House.
For the World Bank, the focus is likely to remain on job creation, with president Ajay Banga set to take part in several events aimed at boosting labor market participation in countries facing a surge in population growth. The IMF will hold press conferences to discuss its regular trio of reports focused on the health of the global economy, fiscal policy, and global financial stability.
At the annual meetings there will be another roundtable on Ukraine, a country still facing near-daily drone and missile attacks more than three years after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.
The event will be an opportunity to discuss "the needs for ongoing support to Ukraine and efforts needed for its reconstruction," according to the IMF.
There will also be meetings of finance ministers from the G7 group of advanced Western economies, and a gathering of the G20 group of nations, a forum that includes both the United States and China.
