IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva
The director general of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, stated that the world economy is “again being put to the test”, this time by the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.
Triggered on Saturday by an earthquake, the war spread quickly with Tehran’s response to the two countries’ various allies in the region, also threatening navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, sending world oil prices soaring and plunging markets into turmoil.
Kristalina Georgieva stressed that “the conflict will place new demands on political decision-makers around the world”, with “markets evolving like a roller coaster in recent days”.
“This conflict, if it were to continue, could obviously affect world energy prices, market sentiment and inflation. The sooner this calamity ends, the better it will be for the entire world”, said the IMF director general.
“We live in a world where shocks are more frequent and unexpectedand we have been warning our members for some time that uncertainty is now the new norm,” he said during a conference debating Asia in 2050, taking place in Bangkok.
Asia is the continent most affected by , a strategic route through which around 20% of the oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) sold in the world passes.
According to data from Kpler and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), between 84% and 90% of the crude oil that passes through Hormuz Its destination is Asia, where 83% of the LNG from this crucial route also arrives, whose main buyers are China, India, South Korea and Japan.
Despite the context of energy uncertainty, Asia continues to be one of the great drivers of the world economyas the region generates “two thirds of global growth and concentrates around 40% of trade”, which means that “it is not possible to talk about the global economic future without mentioning Asia”, according to Georgieva.
