IMF Podcasts

The burning of fossil fuels comes with many costs. Millions of people die each year from the pollution it emits. This follow up to an earlier interview with an IMF economist explores the health risks posed by air pollution and some proposed solutions.

Strong economic growth helps keep people employed and healthy, but there's a growing sense in many countries that only the wealthiest are reaping the benefits. Nobel laureate Michael Spence says inclusive growth is key to economic stability.

More than half of all countries in the world have laws that restrict women from joining the workforce. The IMF says the global economy would benefit by Boosting Women's Participation in the Labor Force, and hosted a seminar on the topic last fall during the Fund's annual meetings. Sarah Iqbal participated in that forum and talks in this podcast about the hurdles women face when starting a business...

Antibiotics have transformed modern medicine, but their overuse has resulted in more drug–resistant strains of bacteria. As resistance increases, people in poorer countries often can't afford expensive second-line drugs. Ramanan Laxminarayan, Princeton University and director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy.

Economist Justin Wolfers explains why the continued challenge of tackling income inequality should be a global priority for countries around the world and across the economic spectrum.

South Africa can celebrate significant progress in its first 20 years of democracy, but faces the challenge of reviving a weak economy. Addressing structural constraints such as electricity shortages are key to increasing growth.

Despite his reputation as the father of greedy capitalism, Adam Smith did a great deal of thinking about the human condition and how to be a better, more generous person. One economist believes that Smith could change your life. Listen to Russ Roberts on economics as entertainment:

Economic ideas can be a hard pill to swallow for non-academics, and yet virtually everyone can benefit from understanding them. Economist Russ Roberts discusses how he uses stories, rap music and the internet to help the medicine go down.

Data has gained prominence as a vital building block for making sound policy. IMF Director of Statistics, Louis Marc Ducharme talks about how the IMF is helping make data more widely available to policy makers.

When the richest 85 people hold the combined wealth of 3.5 Billion poor people, economist Jose Antonio Ocampo explains that Income inequality can shift from a human rights issue to a marker of potentially dangerous economic instability.

Labor market flexibility is considered by many to be essential to an efficient market economy. But a top-level official of the ILO says there's been an excessive focus on worker flexibility. Off the back of an IMF/World Bank seminar, she explained how economic growth can be nurtured to benefit all.

As Uganda's economy continues to grow, so does the need for more efficient ways of managing large development projects. The country's finance minister says the objectives of each program must be clear, for capacity building to be effective.

Private investment is down in India, partly due to the lack of coal and electricity. India's new chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian says removing those bottlenecks is key to increasing growth.

Caribbean economies have been slow to recover from the global financial crisis. This week, the IMF and the government of Jamaica will host a high level forum that will discuss ways of boosting the economies of the region.

The work of master economist John Maynard Keynes has been key in the resolution of successive crises from the Great Depression to the recent global financial crisis. An IMF economist gives an overview of the man, his ideas and their impact on economic policy.

The IMF's latest Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa says growth in the region is currently at 5% and will continue to rise to 5¾ in 2015. The good news is overshadowed however in countries worst affected by the Ebola pandemic.

The world needs more growth, and more jobs to escape the prospect of prolonged, mediocre economic future, says the head of the International Monetary Fund who laid out the prospects for the global economy, and the priorities for the international organization at the start of the IMF-World Bank Meetings.

In the current environment of slow economic growth, where conditions are right, there's a strong case for increasing public investment, says the IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook

The global economy is suffering weak and uneven growth, with countries experiencing different rates of recovery from the global financial crisis of 2008. While the economies of some advanced countries continue to expand, the emerging markets are facing lower domestic demand and geopolitical tensions.

Le Fonds monétaire international accorde $130 millions d'aide financière aux trois pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest les plus touchés par la crise de l'Ébola. Le Libéria, la Guinée et la Sierra Leone se heurtent à un ralentissement de la croissance et la flambée du virus bouleverse l'agriculture, le secteur minier et les services. La Directrice générale du FMI, Christine Lagarde, a déclaré que la communau...

The International Monetary Fund is to give $130 million dollars of financial assistance to the three countries in west Africa hardest hit by the ebola crisis. Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are facing slowing growth and disruptions to agriculture, mining, and services because of the outbreak.

As the Chinese president, Xi Jinping continues his state visit to India, a leading Indian economist assesses the rapid development of these two giant economies, and suggests that the world's most populous countries may be forging a quite exceptional development path.

Small states or countries with fewer than 1.5 million people have been struggling economically in recent years. An IMF economist offers an explanation and possible solutions.

Traditionally, countries developed their economies by moving away from agriculture into manufacturing. This was then followed by growth of the service sector. But many countries in Africa are building their service sector without transitioning through widespread industrialization. Is Africa experiencing a quite different path towards development? For more information: http://www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/resea...

Chinese economic growth has been slowing in recent years. If the world's second largest economy is to achieve sustainable, long-term growth, it needs reforms to shadow banking, local government finances and the real estate sector, say IMF economists.