Middle East war, High Debt Levels To Dominate IMF-World Bank Meetings in Bangkok

Finance officials from around the world will gather in Thailand this week under the shadow of a widening war in the Middle East, the biggest energy supply shock ever and rising interest rates that together pose daunting risks to already-sluggish global economic growth.
The US-Israeli-led war ​with Iran, now in its eighth month, and the inflation and hardship it has caused, will dominate the agenda and sideline conversations during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, being held outside ‌of Washington for the first time in three years.
Notably absent will be US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who dispatched two senior officials in his stead while he handled some “domestic engagements,” a US official said.
His decision to skip the high-profile gathering and a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies, which the US leads this year, may frustrate counterparts amid rising tensions over the Iran war, Ukraine’s battle against Russia’s invasion and the US move to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court.
World Bank President Ajay Banga told Reuters that while global growth had held up better than feared when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, shutting off some 20% ​of the world’s oil, pressures were building again. Soaring prices for diesel, rising fertilizer prices and a looming “super” El Niño weather effect that experts say could lead to 450,000 heat-related deaths are all hitting at once.