IMF Podcasts

The future continues to look bright for sub-Saharan Africa, with robust growth expected to accelerate next year. But the IMF also warns of possible threats to the continent's economy coming from outside the region.

Rising inequality around the world is becoming a cause of increasing concern. The IMF is contributing to the debate by suggesting how governments might use tax and spending to reduce the gap between the haves and the have lesses...without slowing down growth.

The podcast explores why some countries are richer than others, focusing on the role of agriculture. It discusses total factor productivity and its impact on the productivity gap between rich and poor countries. It also examines income disparity and compares higher-level productivity to agriculture. Additionally, it delves into the relationship between agriculture and economic development, especially in poor countries where productivity remains low.

The frequency of natural disasters has increased, and its usually poorer countries that are more affected than the developed. But IMF economists say the right policies can be soften their devastating impact. By Nicole Laframboise, Deputy Division Chief, IMF's Western Hemisphere Department

Over the next two decades, global energy consumption is expected to increase by more than 40 percent, according to the Chief Economist of BP, who describes some of the likely tectonic shifts in the energy sector of the future.

Economists use models to try to make sense of economic trends and shape policies. But, since the financial meltdown of 2008, many have criticized what they see as an overreliance on these models which failed to predict the crisis. The former President of the European Central Bank suggests ways these models might be improved.

Unemployment benefits deter job seekers from accepting work, say critics. But do they? One expert weighs the evidence.

Traditionally, humanitarian workers and development specialists were seen as inhabiting two different worlds, but one expert calls for some joined up thinking to help the people of fragile states.

La croissance de l'économie mondiale devrait s'accélérer cette année, selon le Fonds monétaire international. C'est ce qui ressort de la dernière mise à jour des Perspectives de l'économie mondiale du FMI. Le FMI table sur une croissance mondiale voisine de 3,7 % cette année, qui passerait à 3,9 % en 2015.

Global growth is expected to increase this year, says the International Monetary Fund in its latest report on the health of the global economy. The IMF forecasts global growth to average 3.7 percent in 2014―up from 3 percent in 2013―and to rise to 3.9 percent in 2015.