IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings Move to Bangkok Under the Shadow of War, Record Debt and an Energy Shock — With Bessent Staying Home
The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank convene in Bangkok this week, their first gathering outside Washington in three years, drawing more than 10,000 participants, Reuters reported. The meetings open under three compounding pressures: a widening Middle East war, what officials describe as the largest energy-supply shock on record, and rising interest rates, all weighing on already sluggish global growth.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be notably absent, sending two senior officials in his place while he attends to domestic engagements, a U.S. official said. Debt is the other dominant theme: the IMF says public debt is at its highest since World War Two and will exceed 100% of world GDP before 2030, while it expects global growth of about 3% in 2026.
On energy, the Group of Seven has agreed to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude from emergency reserves, and Reuters reported that more than 1 billion barrels have been drawn from storage since the war began on Feb. 28.
(Sources: Reuters)
Source: 路透社
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：曼谷市中心天际线与轻轨。摄影：Vyacheslav Argenberg，CC BY 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
