Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at next year’s risks to the global economy, escalating student-led protests across France, and Russia denying rumors of the pneumonic plague.

‘Get Your House in Order’

Skyrocketing energy costs from two devastating wars. Record-high public debt amid ballooning government bond yields. Debilitating inflation rates, sluggish fiscal growth, and new artificial intelligence investment risks. The global economy is in for a tough 2027, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva warned on Wednesday.

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at next year’s risks to the global economy, escalating student-led protests across France, and Russia denying rumors of the pneumonic plague.

‘Get Your House in Order’

Skyrocketing energy costs from two devastating wars. Record-high public debt amid ballooning government bond yields. Debilitating inflation rates, sluggish fiscal growth, and new artificial intelligence investment risks. The global economy is in for a tough 2027, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva warned on Wednesday.

In a speech previewing next week’s annual IMF/World Bank meetings in Bangkok, Georgieva outlined several of the risks threatening the world order and urged nations to implement protective measures to help keep the lights on.

“My message to the world’s economic policymakers will be this: We cannot keep delaying necessary policy action,” Georgieva said.

Instead of relying on rapid economic growth to lift debt burdens, governments should prepare to make “very tough political choices” in the near future. “Now may be a good time for a prudently hawkish bias in many countries’ monetary policy,” ​Georgieva suggested, applauding recent rate hikes by the Bank of ⁠Japan, the European Central Bank, and the U.S. ​Federal Reserve. She also urged leaders to tighten government spending, focus on price stability, and tackle the risks of AI.

The IMF chief highlighting AI investments was notable, as it comes while the world’s two largest economies—the United States and China—are competing in the advanced tech’s........

© Foreign Policy