Winter is Coming: Beyond the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings, an Unfinished Battle for Reform

Below is a guest post by Claire Schachter, research associate in the International Institutions and Global Governance program.

The Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group are underway in Washington, DC. The world’s top finance officials are painting the brightest picture of the global economy since the 2008 financial crisis: global growth is picking up, the United States’ recovery is gaining traction, and the future of the euro appears less precarious. But if one steps back to view the scene with a broader perspective, the portrait darkens. From slower emerging market growth to risk in China’s shadow banking sector to weak internal demand in the southern part of the euro area, the steady recovery of the global economy is hardly a sure bet. Unfinished economic and financial policy reforms litter the post-2008 landscape. A renewed commitment to improving the resilience of the global economy from domestic leaders and international financial governance institutions is critical.

Global economic stability remains at risk from six persistent challenges, each of which is within the power of the leading economic nations to address:

Unfinished reform—whether of American and European banking supervisory mechanisms or the governance of the IMF and the World Bank— is becoming a depressing hallmark of the new economy. Global economic stability will be severely tested as a result. It is always easier to feel optimistic in spring time, but the global economy remains exposed to the elements, and inevitably, winter will come. The leaders gathered in Washington this week should not lose sight of the need to finish constructing improved mechanisms for better multilateral crisis management and policy coordination.