Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, warned of mounting threats to the global economy amid persistently high energy prices, unprecedented levels of public debt and the risks tied to the artificial intelligence investment boom. She urged governments to take preventive fiscal and monetary policy measures.

In a speech ahead of the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, Georgieva said the global economy is being shaped by two simultaneous forces: a negative energy supply shock caused by conflicts, and a surge in demand driven by the expansion of AI, which supports economic activity but also adds to inflationary pressures.

She pointed to the uneven impact of these two forces across countries, with many economies left out of the AI boom, limiting their ability to benefit from the growth opportunities the technology offers.

She said the IMF's new growth forecasts will show the largest downgrades in economies hit hard by war, including Ukraine, which faces extensive damage to its civilian and economic infrastructure.

On energy, Georgieva said oil prices remain at USD 100 per barrel, alongside pressures from weak refining capacity and a widening gap between crude prices and those of major petroleum products such as diesel. She added that Brent crude futures point to oil prices staying high through 2027.

She stressed that rising energy costs are adding pressure on inflation, interest rates and bond yields, noting that yields on 10-year sovereign bonds in the United States, Germany and Japan have reached their highest levels since 2007, 2009 and 1996, respectively, and are still trending upward.