News Investigators/ The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released its 2026 Annual Report of the Executive Board.
The report, titled “Navigating a Precarious World”, was released on Wednesday.
It highlights rising public debt, Artificial Intelligence (AI) investment, trade reorientation, and digital currencies as major forces shaping the global economy.
It covers the activities of the IMF during its 2026 fiscal year, from May 1, 2025, to April 30, and, in some cases, developments beyond the period.
According to the report, the global economy continued to demonstrate resilience in spite of challenges from geopolitical shocks, ongoing conflicts, and major shifts in the global trading system.
It identified four major forces shaping the global economy, including rising public debt and a surge in AI investment transforming economies and labour markets.
Others include trade reorientation amid an unprecedented energy supply shock and the rapid development of stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and tokenisation.
The IMF said it continued to support member countries through its three core areas of economic surveillance, lending and capacity development during the fiscal year.
It said in the area of economic surveillance, 138 country health checks, including Article IV consultations and related surveillance activities, were completed.
The fund said it also provided 40 billion dollars in financing to 18 countries, including about two billion dollars to nine low-income countries.
In capacity development, the IMF said it committed 400 million dollars to hands-on technical advice, policy-oriented training and peer learning.
In her message contained in the report, IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, said the global economy continued to show resilience in the face of more frequent and overlapping shocks during the year.
Georgieva said the war in the Middle East had restrained growth, boosted inflation and disrupted the supply of key commodities.
“If not for an agile private sector boosted by AI investment and disciplined policymaking, things could have been much worse,” she said.
She said that uncertainty remained high while the medium-term outlook was “tepid”, stressing the need for stronger economic growth and greater resilience to future shocks.
Georgieva said price and financial stability were paramount, adding that sound policy frameworks and strong institutions remained important pillars of resilience.
She said fiscal authorities still had tools they could use, but they must be chosen wisely.
She also identified structural policies as an important avenue for achieving more durable growth, flexibility and resilience.
On AI, Georgieva said the technology presented both opportunities and threats, urging countries to help workers reskill and firms to take advantage of potential productivity gains.
She also stressed the need to strengthen cyber-resilience to manage the risks associated with AI.
According to her, the IMF will continue to tailor its support to the needs of individual member countries through policy advice, financial assistance and capacity development.
“From navigating a changing trade environment, to reducing imbalances, to seizing the opportunities of the AI age, the fund stands as a venue for cooperation and as a transmission line for good policies.”
Georgieva said the IMF had also strengthened its operations during the fiscal year with the support of its executive board.
She said the IMF was carrying out reforms to the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, agreed in 2024, to support the fund’s most vulnerable members.
The IMF boss thanked members that had made commitments and called on others to provide additional subsidy resources to ensure the trust’s self-sustained lending capacity.
Georgieva also said the fund was undertaking comprehensive reviews of its core functions, including surveillance, financial sector assessments, and the determination of sustainable debt levels for low-income members.
“Others are the design of country programmes, and the assessment of global imbalances and their impacts,” she said.
She further urged members to implement the 16th quota review to ensure that the IMF remained inclusive and representative of its membership.
Georgieva said the fund remained committed to strengthening its capacity to respond to the evolving needs of member countries.
“Each new shock only shows more clearly how interconnected we are, and how much our members can benefit from pooling their collective strength and working together with the IMF to yield tangible results,” she said.
NAN
