IMF/World Bank $150B Plan
- At the IMF‑World Bank spring meetings, officials pledged to mobilise extra funding to blunt energy shocks in emerging economies. (sdg.iisd.org) - They plan to mobilise an additional $150 billion to mitigate energy shocks in emerging markets. (thecorner.eu) - Officials warned this move highlights the limits of existing multilateral tools as geopolitical tensions and debt pressures mount. (thedailystar.net)
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank said at their April 13-18 Spring Meetings that they would provide up to $150 billion in new financing for developing countries hit by the energy shock. (money.usnews.com) The meetings were held in Washington, D.C., as the war in the Middle East disrupted oil, gas and fertilizer flows and kept shipping through the Strait of Hormuz from returning to normal. The International Energy Agency, IMF and World Bank issued a joint statement on April 13 saying the shock was “substantial, global, and highly asymmetric,” with energy importers and low-income countries taking the hardest hit. (imf.org) The IMF’s April 14 World Economic Outlook briefing said the conflict had “halted” the momentum the global economy carried into 2026. IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and damage to energy facilities raised the risk of a major energy crisis if a durable solution was not found soon. (imf.org) The $150 billion plan is aimed at countries that import fuel and now face higher import bills, wider current-account deficits and more pressure on food prices because fertilizer costs also jumped. The IMF, World Bank and International Energy Agency said higher fuel and fertilizer prices were already feeding concerns about food security and job losses. (imf.org) Officials also used the meetings to warn governments against broad fuel subsidies and stockpiling oil. Reuters reported that IMF and World Bank officials urged countries not to hoard oil and not to rely on expensive, untargeted fuel-price support as the shock spread. (money.usnews.com) The backdrop was a wider slowdown in global growth. Reuters reported that the IMF cut its 2026 global growth forecast to 3.1% in its most optimistic scenario and said events were already pushing the world economy toward a more adverse 2.5% scenario. (money.usnews.com) Governments used the meetings to press for a bigger response from multilateral lenders. In its April 21 statement, the United Kingdom said the scale and frequency of current shocks required a multilateral development system that could move “faster” and at “greater scale,” while the World Bank said on April 17 that multilateral development banks were deepening coordination to support countries under mounting pressure. (gov.uk) (worldbank.org) Even with the new money, the meetings underscored how much still depends on events outside the conference rooms. Reuters quoted Atlantic Council economist Josh Lipsky saying the most important decisions for the global economy were not being made on the IMF-World Bank campus, but in the conflict itself. (money.usnews.com)
