It bears remembering that, as recently as the second half of 2021, the Federal Reserve considered that the surge in consumer price inflation would dissipate, with price increases returning to the Fed’s 2 per cent target in 2022. In testimony before Congress, Fed Chair Jerome Powell affixed the now infamous “transitory” moniker to the ongoing price increases, which he ascribed to temporary supply bottlenecks and price declines in the early stages of the pandemic.

A famous physicist once said: “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it.”

Grameenphone recently celebrated its 25 years in Bangladesh. It is a story to be proud of, a story of how telecom technology was made available to people from all walks of life.

Government support was vital to help people and firms survive pandemic lockdowns and support the economic recovery. But where inflation is high and persistent, across-the-board fiscal support is not warranted. Most governments have already dialed back pandemic support.

Deployment of migrant workers from Asia is slowly getting back on track after plummeting due to the Covid-19 pandemic during the first quarter of 2020. Some countries are recording departures of migrant workers exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

Governments confront difficult trade-offs amid sharp increases in food and energy prices. Policymakers must protect low-income families from large real income losses and ensure their access to food and energy. 

On End Poverty Day this year, it’s hard to find cause for celebration.  The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a historic setback, pushing 70 million people into extreme poverty in 2020 – the largest one-year increase in three decades. 

Asia’s strong economic rebound early this year is losing momentum, with a weaker-than-expected second quarter. We have cut growth forecasts for Asia and the Pacific to 4 per cent this year and 4.3 per cent next year, which are well below the 5.5 per cent average over the last two decades. Despite this, Asia remains a relative bright spot in an increasingly dimming global economy.

The dollar is at its highest level since 2000, having appreciated 22 per cent against the yen, 13 per cent against the euro and 6 per cent against emerging market currencies since the start of this year. Such a sharp strengthening of the dollar in a matter of months has sizable macroeconomic implications for almost all countries, given the dominance of the dollar in international trade and finance.

Financial conditions have tightened as central banks continue to hike interest rates. Amid the highly uncertain global environment risks to financial stability have increased substantially.

Amid ongoing food and fuel crises worldwide, general subsidies are making a big comeback as a way of delivering social protection to the population. In fact, according to a World Bank tracker, the number of social protection measures introduced in response to rising inflation almost tripled globally between April and September 2022. More than a third of these were subsidies, including for fuel, food, fertilizers, and fees (such as for electricity, water and heating services).

The war in Ukraine and aftershocks from the Covid-19 pandemic present Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) with an extremely challenging external environment shaped by higher food, fertilizer, and energy prices, rising inflation and interest rates, and stagflation risks in advanced economies.

The world must cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least a quarter before the end of this decade to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Progress needed toward such a major shift will inevitably impose short-term economic costs, though these are dwarfed by the innumerable long-term benefits of slowing climate change.

Inflation in some economies is rising at the fastest pace in four decades, while tight labour markets have boosted pay gains. That has raised concerns that these conditions could become self-reinforcing and lead to a wage-price spiral—a prolonged loop in which inflation leads to higher wage growth, fueling even higher inflation.

Cities are not just places where people live. They are massive labour markets and engines of economic growth, facilitating structural transformation of economies towards manufacturing and service activities. New urban transport infrastructure changes how people access jobs and matches employees to firms.

The transport sector currently accounts for a quarter of energy-related carbon emissions globally. It also ranks among the fastest-growing sources of such emissions.

Women´s contributions to climate action are severely limited by systems that downplay women´s roles, capacity, and potential. Greater access to sustainable and gender-equitable green finance will help women be frontrunners in global efforts to address climate change.

Billions of consumers around the world are seeing higher oil prices seep into the cost of living and wages. Filling the gas tank soon starts to cost more when crude prices climb, as does airfare, but higher energy costs also boost prices for all the products on store shelves. Workers seek higher wages to compensate for a loss in their purchasing power.

Compliance with the ESG standards is not going to be an option soon for business enterprises functioning even in developing countries like Bangladesh. But as Bangladesh

Emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s clear how ill-prepared the world was for such a crisis. We can see how our inability to deal with decades-old existential threats – notably the degradation of ecosystems, climate change, and food insecurity – has exposed us to pandemics, disasters triggered by natural hazards, and now worsening hunger.