Building a Stronger, Fairer Global Economy

Is the glass half full or half empty when it comes to the global economy? In this short interview published by the World Economic Forum in April 2024, I argue that much depends on the choices governments make as trade and investment patterns shift.

These changes could bring greater resilience, less concentrated risk and new opportunities for developing countries to connect with global production networks. But fragmentation also carries costs: reduced economic efficiency, higher prices, slower productivity growth and less innovation. These are risks to be managed, rather than outcomes we should regard as inevitable.

My argument is that international cooperation and economic integration need to remain priorities. In particular, keeping the US–China relationship on a constructive footing and avoiding armed conflict would give us a better chance of emerging from this period with a stronger, more equitable and more stable global economy.

Watch the interview

Watch on the World Economic Forum website

Video: World Economic Forum. Published 8 April 2024. Duration: 1 minute 48 seconds.

Hero photograph: MAdaXe / Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Container ship in the Panama Canal at Gatun; cropped.