Poverty seen as greatest challenge of new century despite improved global environment

• Pages: 341-342

Page 341

Conditions in the global economy are encouraging, and prospects for continued economic growth are generally favorable. Nonetheless, poverty remains the single greatest challenge of the century. Speaking at the plenary sessions of the 2000 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, held on September 26–28 in Prague, Czech Republic, the governors representing the IMF’s 182 members acknowledged that, although globalization has brought opportunities for growth and development to both rich and poor countries, not everyone has been able to take advantage of the opportunities. The task facing the international community, the governors agreed, is to build a successful, truly global economy that works well for all people and addresses the widespread poverty that remains “the unacceptable face of the global economic situation,” according to Yannos Papantoniou, Minister of National Economy and Finance of Greece.

In addition to poverty reduction—a dominant message of the 2000 meetings—governors addressed a number of interrelated topics. These included the current high price of oil—and the implications for, in particular, developing countries that depend on imported oil; support for the goal of bringing debt relief to 20 heavily indebted poor countries by the end of the year; the need for a further strengthening of the international financial architecture; and various issues related to reforms of the Bretton Woods institutions and the division of labor between the IMF and the World Bank.

Growth of the world economy

At the 1999 Annual Meetings, the general opinion among governors was that the worst of the international financial crisis was already over. “We were correct then,” said Rodrigo de Rato Figaredo, Second Vice President and Minister of Economy of Spain, “but we were far from realizing that we would now find ourselves in a global economic boom.” This boom is expected to carry over to 2001 in all geographical regions of the world. Robust growth in the United States is contributing to this performance, he noted, as is growth in Europe and much of Asia. After recovering from their recent financial crisis, the Latin American economies are expected to join in that growth.

CHEA Chan To, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, and KEAT Chhon, Cambodia’s Senior Minister of Economy and Finance, noted that the...