IMF chief warns energy shock, public debt and AI boom threaten global growth – business live

Kristalina Georgieva’s warning comes as Brent crude rises above $101 a barrel Turning to the AI boom, where investment as a share of GDP is likely to exceed that of railroads, electricity grids or telecommunications infrastructure, Georgieva said market disappointment could turn into a “far-reaching shock”. AI companies are under pressure to deliver productivity and profit gains to justify their sky-high valuations, she said. help manage AI’s substantial perils, which including large-scale labour market fallout, serious cyber and stability risks and frontier models threatening to escape human control and run amok. Some very tough political choices stare us in the face. My message to the world’s economic policymakers next week will be this: we cannot keep delaying necessary policy action — you have the tools, now have the wisdom to use them. And yet we don’t see decisive action in the high-debt advanced economies where the need of the hour is for credible medium-term fiscal consolidation plans, supported in some cases by upfront fiscal measrues, including to take some pressure off monetary policy. Now may be a good time for a prudently hawkish bias in many countries’ monetary policy. Continue reading...