by Maria Maalouf
The spring meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund for 2023 are upon us. The world is still looking for ways to mitigate the repercussions of the Corona pandemic, which has exhausted the global economy. The international economic crisis has heightened in light of the catastrophic effects of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which has had a devastating financial impact on many, particularly developing countries, leading some into a spiral of borrowing to alleviate the economic hardships.
This is where the role of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is essential to finding practical solutions to achieve stability and restore balance to the global economy. The focus of these two organizations is on achieving financial sustainability.
The UAE was at the forefront of those countries that succeeded in achieving the coveted balance based on mitigating the repercussions of the pandemic and war. The Emirates, rather than being dragged into a reactionary economic cycle, instead achieved growth, which is particularly remarkable in comparison to the decline of most of the world’s economies. The economic progress is the result of the internal directions of the UAE leadership with the recommendations of international financial bodies, in particular the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
This was confirmed by the UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs, Muhammad Hadi Al-Husseini, who stressed the importance of the financial efforts and proposals put forward by the International Monetary Fund. Al-Husseini indicated that the growth rate in the UAE economy is expected to reach 3.9 percent at the end of 2023, accompanied by a decrease in the rate of Inflation from 4.8 percent, which was recorded in 2022, to 3.2 percent by the end of 2023.
Those figures coincided with the report issued by the International Monetary Fund, referring to the stability in prices in the local and global markets, in addition to the decline in the effects of “imported inflation” globally, explaining this with the economic flexibility that the UAE pursues. According to the UAE vision, it becomes imperative for the world’s countries to work together to enhance regional and international cooperation and also to coordinate with the International Monetary Fund to achieve financial sustainability.
Al-Husseini called for the efforts to increase social inclusion to achieve the goals of sustainable development and to address the issues that still affect the issue of climate financing. Climate change related investments and initiatives are at the forefront of the integrated vision by the UAE and will be presented at the COP28 summit that the UAE will host next fall.