2024 Annual Meetings - Address by the Chair of the Boards of Governors

Sub-Saharan Africa's economic growth is projected to remain subdued at 3.6 percent in 2024, unchanged from 2023, with a modest pickup to 4.2 percent expected in 2025, according to the latest IMF Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa published today.

Today, Mr. Geoff Gottlieb, IMF Senior Regional Representative for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, made the following statement: “An IMF mission headed by Mr. Jan Kees Martijn will visit Bucharest November 5 - 8, 2024, to hold a regular staff visit. The Fund’s team will review recent economic and financial developments and update the macroeconomic outlook.”

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded today the seventh and the eighth reviews under the extended arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), approved in April 2021, and a review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) arrangement, approved in July 2023, with Kenya.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released the results of the 2024 Financial Access Survey (FAS), marking the 15th anniversary of the FAS. The report “FAS: 2024 Highlights,” published along with the data release, summarizes the key trends on access to and usage of financial services over the past few years.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) will strengthen collaboration to promote climate action, environmental sustainability, and sustainable finance. In a new agreement, the EIB and the EEA pledged deeper cooperation in technical areas including biodiversity, climate adaptation, circular economy, and urban sustainability.

The 9th High-level Regional Financing Arrangements (RFAs) Dialogue was held on 23 October 2024 in Washington DC at a time when the global economic outlook is improving but remains weak amid a complex geoeconomic environment and elevated policy uncertainty.