Blog | New policy tracker shows many governments pursuing costly responses to fuel and food price hikes, leaving less room to address future challenges. As governments move quickly to shield people and businesses from the energy shock caused by the war in the Middle East, early evidence suggests many countries are resorting to untargeted and potentially expensive policies amid tight budgets. If the recent peace talks lead to a quick normalization of trade and oil flows, and prices go back...

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Blog | This blog post is part of a special series based on the April 2026 Commodity Markets Outlook, a flagship report published by the World Bank. This series features concise summaries of commodity-specific sections extracted from the report. Australian thermal coal prices reached $150/mt in early June, fueled by supply disruptions in China, export uncertainty in Indonesia, and rising summer electricity demand, before retreating sharply after the announcement of an end to military operations in the Middle East. Earlier in March,...

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The European Commission published the fourth State of the Digital Decade report, showing that Europe has made progress on its 2030 digital transformation targets, such as secure and sustainable digital infrastructures and the digitalisation of public services – but the challenge now is delivering results at scale, speed and consistency. The report comes as the Commission published the last Special Eurobarometer, showing that an overwhelming majority of Europeans rank digital policy as a top EU priority, firmly backing a more autonomous European digital future. The...

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Blog Kristalina Georgieva | An overall resilient world economy masks significant differences among countries and regions. Energy importers and countries with limited policy space are most vulnerable. More than three months into the war in the Middle East, the global economy appears to be holding up. Commodity prices, inflation and expectations for it, and financial conditions have all been impacted—but not yet in ways that signal a global slowdown. And we have seen strong economic momentum in the world’s biggest...

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The Council today adopted conclusions on Global Gateway, reaffirming it as the European Union’s worldwide investment strategy for building mutually beneficial partnerships and mobilising public and private resources to bridge the global investment gap. In a geopolitical environment marked by growing fragmentation, economic competition and pressure on democratic governance, the Council reiterates its commitment to advance Global Gateway as a core element of the EU’s external action. The strategy represents the EU’s positive and comprehensive offer to partner countries, combining development cooperation, trade and...

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Keynote remarks by Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, at the “One Europe, One Market Summit”, organized by the Jacques Delors Friends of Europe Foundation, Brussels The world economy—and Europe with it—is hit once more by a shock: this time, the events unfolding in the Middle East. Before Hormuz closed, Europe’s growth outlook was improving and we at the IMF were getting ready to upgrade our forecasts. Now, we see growth down and inflation up. But still, some credit where credit is due: it...

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The conflict in the Middle East is expected to slow global growth to the lowest rate since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic amid higher energy prices, steeper inflation, and increased borrowing costs , according to the World Bank Group’s latest Global Economic Prospects report.  Global growth is forecast to slow to 2.5% in 2026, down from 2.9% in 2025. Forecasts for two-thirds of economies have been downgraded relative to January of this year.  Global growth is expected to improve to 2.8%...

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Blog | The current energy shock is significant and global, but it is also hitting a euro area economy that is more balanced than when Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. History and analysis show that context matters a lot for how shocks propagate to inflation. Energy prices have risen sharply since early 2026 when war broke out again in the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz was closed. This big uptick in energy inflation has in turn driven...

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