African economies began tapping into overseas markets for funding in the early 2000s, after debt burdens had been alleviated by the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. However, surging interest rates on dollar- and euro-denominated loans in recent years have prompted countries to turn to domestic markets for their borrowing needs. Amadou Sy heads the IMF Regional Studies division. In this podcast, he says there are benefits to issuing debt in local markets and in local currency.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Amadou_Sy-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf

Read the article at IMF.org/FandD

Unprecedented debt levels are pressing governments to make tough choices. While aging populations demand more public spending, resources are stretched thin, and the days of cheap borrowing that allowed the debt burden to be kicked down the road are behind us. Rodrigo Valdés and Era Dabla-Norris head the IMF Fiscal Affairs department and write about high debt and hard choices in the March edition of Finance & Development magazine. In this podcast, they say the erosion of public trust is a factor in reconciling competing fiscal priorities.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Valdes-Dabla-Norris-AUDIO-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf 

Read the article at IMF.org/fadd

The most prosperous of civilizations were the most open. The Romans, for example, expanded their empire by integrating the populations they conquered, creating a melting pot of new ideas. Johan Norberg’s latest book, Peak Human, examines the rise and fall of seven golden age civilizations. In this podcast, he says that if openness to learning and trade are what great societies make, building walls to protect their dominance often sparks their demise. Norberg is a historian and senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Johan_Norberg-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf

Read the article Finance & Development: IMF.org/fandd

There is strength in numbers, and the idea of European integration through a single market was to capitalize on the EU as a whole. However, the single market is a product of the early 90s, and EU member states now appear reticent to pool sovereignty to the degree required to counter the geopolitical challenges of today’s world. Enrico Letta is President of the Jacques Delors Institute and a champion of Delors’ vision of creating a fully integrated European economic space. Letta’s 2024 report, Much More than a Market, argues that adaptation of the single market should include all sectors rather than a select few and that fragmentation is holding Europe back.

Transcript: https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Enrico_Letta-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf