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World leaders and business executives attended the last day of the World Economic Forum on Friday, January 20, after an exchange of views on how the world will address its biggest problems in 2023. Hand in hand with the special envoy to Davos, Daniela Blandón, the conclusions.
“My message is: it’s less bad than we feared a couple of months ago, but less bad still doesn’t mean good.” This warm message about the world economy in 2023 contrasted this Friday with the coldest temperature experienced by its attendees since the World Economic Forum began last Monday.
That was the conclusion that, at the end of the meeting, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, delivered after five days of forum; four of them involved intense debates on the problems -and possible solutions- facing the world economy.
These are the main conclusions of the largest annual meeting of political and business leaders in the world.
Optimism amid pessimism
The pessimism and hopelessness in which much of the more than 2,700 attendees arrived in the small Swiss town turned towards cautious optimism at the end of the meeting, with the global economic outlook for next year better than feared.
However, the annual meeting was filled with discussions of latent risks, including inflationary pressures from China’s reopening and rising debt in the developing world.
The most difficult thing for Western nations is yet to come: bringing inflation down to 2%. Central bank officials and economic experts believe that the season of raising interest rates to drive prices down is not over yet.
A global “political” forum
Two of the four busiest days on the Davos agenda were occupied by the war in Ukraine. Not surprisingly, it was the Ukrainian first lady herself, Olena Zelenska, who delivered the opening speech.
“You cannot focus the debate on global warming, when there are cities in my country burning in flames because of Russian missiles,” he said, a day before President Volodimir Zelensky appeared in a video conference to ask for more Western help.
The most influential leaders united their voices around delivering more and better weapons, as well as financial support to kyiv to defend itself against Russia, in a reversal of the trend in response to the request made in the same forum by the Ukrainian head of state in the 2022 forum: more economic sanctions against Moscow.
Climate change, co-star of the meeting
Flush with cash after a year of high oil prices, fossil fuel producers and investors came under fire from environmental activists in Davos.
Outside the convention center, Greta Thunberg and other activists called on the energy industry to stop “hijacking” the clean energy transition. Domestically, political leaders such as Kier Starmer criticized new oil investment and Pakistani climate minister Sherry Rehman lobbied for funds for loss and damage.
“How did we get there? The lesson we learned in the last few years… money, money, money, money, money, money, money,” US climate envoy John Kerry said of meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Uncovered feuds between Europe, China and the United States
In recent months, Europeans have had a lot to complain about when it comes to the US Inflation Reduction Act. And Davos was the setting for the European Union to talk about it.
The community bloc said it would mobilize state aid and a sovereignty fund to prevent companies from moving to the United States. Since the law was signed by President Joe Biden, Europe has denounced that its industry will lose ground with anti-competitive rules of the game.
“The key question is not China first, the United States first, or Europe first. The key question for all of us is Climate First,” said French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, rejecting that Europe is looking for that protectionism that he criticizes so much. .
With China the relationship is no less traumatic. The president of the European Commission accused Beijing of blocking the entry of European companies and promoting the use of energy from non-renewable sources.
The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, went further: “China undertook a change in its Covid policy that may kill many people, but it will reactivate the economy,” she warned, sarcastically, before ending the event. officially.
