As the U.S. continues to experience historically high inflation rates and increasing risks to its economy, it also faces a number of global geoeconomic challenges. These include the end of the era of globalization, rising financial instability and pressures to increase the production of certain strategically important goods for domestic use or export to friendly neighbors. Meanwhile, the U.S. and other countries are also contending with the economic implications of social, political and technological developments, such as population aging, greater competition from abroad, growing inequality, innovation and its impact on the labor market, and the global transition to cleaner energy sources.
On May 22 at Baker Hall, World Bank Group President David Malpass joined John W. Diamond, Director of the Center for Public Finance at the Baker Institute, to discuss the geoeconomic challenges — and opportunities — facing the United States and the world, and how to navigate them.
This event was sponsored by the Baker Institute Center for Public Finance.
A quick scan of the headlines tells you everything that those of us working in international
development already know: today’s world is not business as usual. In just a few short years, the global landscape has transformed in a way that very few of us could ever have anticipated.
As the debt crisis has unfolded in many of the world’s poorest countries, much attention has 
focused on seeking individual debt restructurings through the G20 Common Framework. This remains a priority, but the implementation remains slow and lacks the predictability needed to provide debtors and creditors with confidence. The Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable and the April 26 World Bank debt conference, Breaking the Impasse in Global Debt Restructuring, discussed effective debt restructurings and debt sustainability. The conference also addressed how to avoid excessive debt build-up; and pressing questions regarding the debt sustainability implications of a decline of net international reserves into negative territory as countries draw on debt-like instruments such as swap lines. Following this week’s G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Japan, we will publish the initial findings from a recent debt reconciliation initiative, which points to many technical challenges in agreeing on the amounts of debt to be treated in a restructuring.
Climate costs and development together need vast new resources. For developing countries, 
the needs are particularly large to provide for growing populations and decades of underinvestment. They need to make major advances on education, energy production, electricity access, health, infrastructure and nutrition just to make up for losses in recent years. Climate costs require significant additional resources, as does the increase in the cost of debt service and repayment.
As COVID-19 abates, the question everyone is asking is: how ready is my country for the
next pandemic? The speed with which the virus spread exposed the many weaknesses in the world’s health systems. No country was immune. Even those that ranked high in the Global Health Security Index struggled to mount a timely and effective response.
WASHINGTON, May 3, 2023 – The Executive Directors of the World Bank today selected
Ajay Banga as President of the World Bank for a five-year term beginning June 2, 2023.
Vietnam is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with increasingly destabilized water and
food supplies and threatened coastal areas. In the face of these challenges, the government is showing bold leadership and climate ambition. The recently updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) significantly increased targets for emissions reductions across several key sectors. Vietnam has also translated global pledges on forests and methane into specific national action plans and policy priorities.
What is missing, however, is the financing needed to achieve these goals. Carbon markets and results-based carbon and climate finance, which pays for emission reductions once they are achieved, have huge potential to help meet this financing challenge. The quickly evolving carbon market ecosystem, however, has many rules, requirements, players, and priorities. The government of Vietnam has requested World Bank Group support in navigating this complexity and identifying opportunities to access carbon finance and market opportunities.
“Vietnam is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with increasingly destabilized water and food supplies and threatened coastal areas. In the face of these challenges, the government is showing bold leadership and climate ambition.”
Netherlands for the World Bank 