14/03/2021 – HR/VP Blog – Putin’s war against Ukraine has already caused thousands of death but also major economic damages globally. We need to handle the impact of this third asymmetric shock in 15 years, at home and abroad. EU leaders agreed at the informal summit in Versailles to bolster European economic resilience, radically reduce our energy imports from Russia and move ahead with a serious strengthening of European defence. "To handle the wider impact of the war against Ukraine,...

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The conflict is a major blow to the global economy that will hurt growth and raise prices. Beyond the suffering and humanitarian crisis from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the entire global economy will feel the effects of slower growth and faster inflation. Impacts will flow through three main channels. One, higher prices for commodities like food and energy will push up inflation further, in turn eroding the value of incomes and weighing on demand. Two, neighboring economies in particular will grapple...

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With fiscal policy having gained fresh prominence, governments must carefully calibrate their policies in the pandemic’s aftermath Before the global financial crisis of 2008, the general consensus was that the most important contribution fiscal policy could make to macroeconomic policy was to avoid becoming a source of instability. That is, while sound public tax and spending policies were considered fundamental to financial stability, it was monetary policy, with its focus on price stability, that would deliver the optimal level of...

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