WB to hold online seminar on global economic prospects

The global economy is set to expand 5.6 percent in 2021-its strongest post-recession pace in 80 years. This recovery is uneven and largely reflects sharp rebounds in some major economies. In many emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), obstacles to vaccination continue to weigh on activity.

By 2022, last year's per capita income losses will not be fully unwound in about two-thirds of EMDEs. The global outlook remains subject to significant downside risks, including the possibility of additional COVID-19 waves and financial stress amid high EMDE debt levels. Policy makers will need to balance the need to support the recovery while safeguarding price stability and fiscal sustainability and to continue efforts toward promoting growth-enhancing reforms.

At this seminar, Ayhan Kose, Acting Vice President of Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Practice Group and Director of Prospects Group, and Naotaka

Sugawara, Senior Economist, Prospects Group, will present the main points of "Global Economic Prospects, June 2021 edition". This seminar will be conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Japanese.

Ayhan Kose is Acting Vice President of Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Practice Group at the World Bank and Director of EFI Prospects Group. He manages operational, policy and advisory engagements in the Bank's Global Practices of Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation; Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment; Governance; and Poverty and Equity. He also leads the Bank's policy and analytical work on global macroeconomic outlook.

Under his management, the Prospects Group produces the Bank's corporate flagship report, Global Economic Prospects, in addition to other policy and analytical publications.

Prior to joining the World Bank in 2014, Mr. Kose was Assistant to the Director of the Research Department and Deputy Chief of the Multilateral Surveillance Division in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He previously served in a wide range of roles supporting policy, operational, and analytical functions of the IMF. His policy and operational work focused on macroeconomic, financial, and development challenges confronted by emerging and developing economies.

Mr. Kose has written extensively on international macroeconomics and finance. Many of his articles have been published in leading academic journals. His policy and analytical work has been featured in prominent media outlets. His latest book, Global Waves of Debt (coauthored, 2020), analyzes the potential consequences of the rapid debt accumulation in emerging and developing economies. His previous book, A Decade After the Global Recession examines how emerging and developing economies became more vulnerable to economic shocks since the 2009 global recession.

Mr. Kose is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research, a Dean's Fellow at University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and a Research Associate at the Center for Applied Macroeconomics.