IMF meetings highlight digital access needs in developing countries

By Afolake Oyinloye

According to the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook published Tuesday, global growth stands at 3.1 percent, while global inflation has spiked to 4.7 percent.

An AI boom is lifting technology-exporting economies, but developing and climate-vulnerable regions face a double hit from rising energy costs and climate disasters.

With over 60 percent of low-income nations in or near debt distress, leaders argue the path forward requires a clear two-part strategy: implementing fiscal consolidation to service high debt and protect social safety nets, while investing aggressively in digital connectivity to join the tech recovery.

At the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Bangkok, delegates outlined the stakes.

Wayne Henry is Chairman and Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica:

“We are in a challenging environment as we are here because of geopolitical matters that that affect oil energy prices and that would affect all countries transportation fuel. And so they are strong inflationary impulses. And then we have, you know the climate, continent, climate vulnerabilities because of the intensities of events in terms of climate hazards. And a number of our developing countries in particular, are challenged and where we are vulnerable. And so I’m from the Caribbean region, and certainly we are the second most vulnerable”

“The head, though some of the positives we are hearing is the sort of AI boom, that technology boom. And a lot of those countries that are producers of technology and AI itself and, and members, you know, particularly in the supply chain of AI, we have seen optics in terms of revisions upward in terms of stronger growth, but certainly a number of our developing economies, and certainly in some of our regions we are not among them. We need to catch up in terms of to do more to to infuse greater, you know, digital connectivity to benefit in a greater way of technological advances.”

By pairing debt discipline with digital investment, developing economies can safeguard vulnerable citizens while securing a foothold in the future economy.