Online Media Briefing Center (OMBC) news for accredited journalists
Highlights
Faltering economic growth is coinciding with ample oil supply in ways that are expected to drop global commodity prices to their lowest level of the 2020s, according to the World Bank’s latest Commodity Markets Outlook. The decline could moderate near-term inflation risks emerging from rising trade barriers, but it could also hamper prospects for economic progress in two out of every three developing economies.
IDA, the World Bank’s fund for low-income countries, supports projects that boost economic growth, build resilience, and provide opportunities in 78 countries around the world. Ireland’s new pledge, announced Thursday on the sidelines of the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings, augments its initial commitment to IDA’s 21st replenishment (IDA21).
The Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GSDR) met today and reviewed progress on the work to improve debt restructuring processes and timelines, and to help address debt vulnerabilities.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga addressed the press and took questions from journalists ahead of the 2025 Spring Meetings.
“With the expanded membership, we are mainstreaming this work across our operations and tying it directly to the jobs agenda that is driving our strategy,” said World Bank Group President Ajay Banga.
Here are the latest bi-annual regional economic updates to explore the macro development trends in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific (coming soon), Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.
Around the world, the digital divide remains a pressing challenge, with 2.6 billion people still offline and many more lacking reliable, affordable connectivity and the skills needed to participate in an increasingly digital world.
Domestic food price inflation remains moderately high. Information from the latest month between December 2024 and March 2025 for which food price inflation data are available shows high inflation in many low- and middle-income countries, with inflation higher than 5% in 78.9% of low-income countries (no change since the last update on March 14, 2025), 47.8% of lower-middle-income countries (2.2 percentage points lower), 47% of upper-middle-income countries (13.0 percentage points higher), and 17.9% of high-income countries (7.0 percentage points higher).
