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UNCTAD – Rebeca Grynspan key messages: Trade and Development Report 2023
Key messages delivered by Rebeca Grynspan, UNCTAD Secretary-General (UN Conference on Trade and Development) this morning Wednesday 4th of October at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, on the occasion of the publication of the Trade and Development Report 2023.
Key messages delivered by Rebeca Grynspan, UNCTAD Secretary-General (UN Conference on Trade and Development) this morning Wednesday 4th of October at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, on the occasion of the publication of the Trade and Development report 2023.
"There are five messages that we want to emphasize from the Trade and Development report of this year. The first message is that the global economy is slowing down. This, despite the good news of the unexpected soft landing of the U.S. economy this year. But the perspectives of accelerating growth in the coming years are very slim.
The second message is that debt is a problem and that a lot of the developing countries are in a debt and development crisis. And debt has to be part of the discussion at the international level to be able to find the right solutions for restructuring debt in many developing countries, including middle income countries.
The third message is that investment is weak and credit is going down. So, the question of where the new sources of growth will come from has to be addressed.
And the fourth message is that we are worried about the market concentration, lack of competition in financialization of trade in very important markets, meaning energy, food, pharmaceuticals and digital are some examples.
So, the important thing is what are the policy recommendations?
On the one hand, we think that we need the policy mix, we have been calling for this. We think that interest rates should not be the only instrument use. And we have called for a revision of the inflation target of 2%, that could mean a collateral damage if not revised, especially for the developing countries, but also for the long term financial stability in the developed world.
The second recommendation is the reform of the international financial system. It would be the instruments to face the liquidity problems, the investment scale that is needed from the multilateral development banks, and, as I said before, a permanent mechanism to deal with the debt problem in the developing countries."
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