The International Monetary Fund Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva has stated that 2024 is likely to come with a lot of spending as a result of the elections planned for the year.
According to Arise News, she added that 2024 will be a very tough year for fiscal policies worldwide as countries look to tackle debt burdens accumulated during the covid pandemic and rebuild depleted buffers
The IMF boss claimed that billions of people are due to go to the polls this year and this puts additional pressure on the government on spending or cutting taxes to win popular support.
Georgieva said, ” Our view for 2024 is poised for soft landing and as much as monetary is doing a good job and inflation is going down, the job is not yet quite done.
“This is going to be a very tough year because fiscal policy has to rebuild buffers and deal with the debt that was accumulated in many countries but also create room for investment in artificial intelligence prerequisites in productivity growth.
“About 80 countries are going to have elections and we know what happens with pressure with spending during election cycles.”
She claimed that this is the year when everyone needs to apply lessons learnt from the last couple of years and always be ready for the unexpected.
Georgieva added that it has been a privilege to be the head of the IMF during a very turbulent time and she must say that she is quite proud of how the institution has been doing so far.
“Right now, I need to focus on what is right in front of me.”
Additionally, the IMF boss added that we must focus on helping lower income countries in particular to be able to move faster and catch the opportunities that artificial intelligence will present.
“We need to embrace it cause it is coming, set aside the fear of this significant change and concentrate on the opportunity.”
