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Past Event

A Global Economy and Development Event

A Conversation with Dominique Strauss-Kahn on the Impact of the Financial Crisis on Low-Income Countries

Global Financial Crisis, International Monetary Fund, Global Economics, Developing Countries, International Finance


Event Summary

On March 3, the Brookings Institution hosted Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, for a discussion on the impact of the fiancial crisis on low-income countries.

Multimedia Downloads

Full Event Audio

March 03, 2009 Length: 78:53

Event Information

When

Tuesday, March 03, 2009
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM

Where

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC
Map

Event Materials


Contact: Brookings Office of Communications

E-mail: events@brookings.edu

Phone: 202.797.6105

Mr. Strauss-Kahn presented the findings from a new IMF study and discussed how low-income countries and the international community can best respond to the policy challenges posed by the global crisis. The event also previewed a major IMF conference in Tanzania, to be held March 10-11, at which 300 regional and global leaders will discuss how Africa can preserve the economic achievements of the past decade.

Following the managing director’s remarks, a panel of Brookings experts and Mr. Strauss-Kahn continued the discussion on related financial crisis issues, including the impact on various regions; the role of the G-20 in responding to the crisis; and the outlook for developing countries.

Transcript

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN: While this crisis has taken a little longer to reach the low-income countries, the outlook of this economy is now deteriorating sharply. The problem is not so much the exposure to toxic assets. Most of those banks are immune to the financial crisis per se. But the problem is the increased exposition, integration into the global economy.

Of course, from some points of view, this integration has brought many benefits. But on the other hand, it means now that the low-income countries are much more exposed than they were in the past. So our growth forecast for 71 countries eligible for concessional IMF lending is just over 4 percent for 2009, which is 2 percentage points lower than the forecast we had one year ago. And even this forecast is probably too optimistic as I said before. In any case, in per capita terms, low-income countries may be at best at stagnation next year and for some of them, probably the possible contraction of this per capita income.

Participants

Introduction

Strobe Talbott

President, The Brookings Institution

Featured Speaker

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Managing Director, International Monetary Fund

Moderator

William J. Antholis

Managing Director, The Brookings Institution


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