Trade among Geopolitical Rivals: Michele Ruta

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

Increased trade integration between economic superpowers shaped our globalized world, but that world we’ve known for the past three decades is becoming increasingly fragmented. What happens to those trade relationships when countries disengage? Michele Ruta is the IMF expert on trade and global imbalances. In this podcast, he says even strategic rivals can benefit from trade cooperation.

Transcript (http://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Michele_Ruta-Trade_Cooperation-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf) : https://bit.ly/4ebXDW0

Read the article in Finance & Development magazine.

IMF.org/FANDD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMhy_o_bQDc

World Cup Attendance

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

What does a packed World Cup stadium tell us about the economy? In this episode of The Economy – How Do You Measure That?, Jim Tebrake and Renato Perez explain how spending on tickets, hotels, food, and souvenirs is recorded in national accounts and the balance of payments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jrlUhzCU0

Press Briefing: 2026 Euro Area Article IV Consultation

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

Join us on June 11, at 5:45 PM CEST (11:45 AM ET) as IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva presents staff findings from the 2026 euro area annual consultations in Luxembourg.

The discussion will focus on the euro area outlook, inflation pressures, energy-related challenges, and the policies needed to strengthen resilience and growth.

Panelists:
Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF
Moderator: Pierre Mejlak, Global Head of Media, IMF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R1zFh5_Go4

StatGPT: AI-Ready Official Statistics

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into economic work, trust in the underlying data matters more than ever. StatGPT demonstrates how natural language AI can provide direct access to official statistics while ensuring the accuracy and integrity of published figures.

The launch event will feature opening remarks by IMF Deputy Managing Director Bo Li, a panel discussion with speakers including IMF Chief Statistician Bert Kroese, IMF Chief Information Officer Shirin Hamid, STA Deputy Director Jim Tebrake, Bruno Tissot, Head of Statistics and Research Support at the Bank for International Settlements, and EPAM Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer Elaina Shekhter, as well as a live demonstration of StatGPT and its potential applications for economic analysis and policy work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnOZ-npEOH8

Household Income Distribution | Part 2

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

What does household income tell us about the economy? After introducing household income in last week’s episode of The Economy – How Do You Measure That?, this week Jim Tebrake and Jorrit Zwijnenburg explore how statisticians break household income into different groups to better understand inequality, vulnerabilities, and living standards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFPRH09rwBQ

Geoeconomics Revisited: Josh Lipsky and Matteo Maggiori

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

As global powers face rising geopolitical tensions, sanctions, export controls, and tariffs are once again tools of leverage, marking the resurgence of geoeconomics, where economic policy and national security converge. This approach to business was largely abandoned by the West after the Cold War, though for most other countries, geopolitics and economics have always been closely linked. Josh Lipsky is the founding director of the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council, and Matteo Maggiori is a professor of finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In this podcast, they discuss the new face of geoeconomics and its seemingly vengeful comeback.

Transcript:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Lipsky-Maggiori-VIDEO-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf

Read their articles in Finance & Development magazine.
https://www.imf.org/fandd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9nG3W-k89w

Gracelin Baskaran on the Race for Minerals

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

The recent scramble for the minerals that go into our electric vehicles, solar panels, and defense systems has exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chains. Mineral markets are complex, spanning dozens of materials found around the world, but the real challenge is processing. More than 90 percent of rare earth minerals are currently processed in China. Gracelin Baskaran is the founding director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In this podcast, she says mineral security is not just a national security imperative, it’s an economic security imperative.

Transcript (https://traffic.libsyn.com/imfpodcast/Gracelin_Baskaran-transcript-IMF_Podcast.pdf) : https://bit.ly/4uBN1qu

Read the article in Finance & Development magazine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aOw-rJnnYk

Household Income

Source: International Monetary Fund – IMF (video statements)

What counts as household income? In this episode of The Economy – How Do You Measure That?, Jim Tebrake and Jorrit Zwijnenburg explore what is included in household income in the national accounts — from wages and pensions to dividends and government transfers. They also discuss why headline totals alone may not tell the full story about how households are actually doing, and why distribution matters when understanding economic well-being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAmHlrwqDzE