Are octogenarian IMF and World Bank sprightly enough for the job?

Fragile recovery, low growth, global debt, AI, the climate ... The organisations founded in 1944 have lots to talk about this week

There is likely to be a sense of relief when the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank hold their half-yearly meetings in Washington this week. Not because the world is crisis-free - it clearly isn't - but because since they met six months ago no fresh crisis has emerged.

The past half-decade has been as tough as any period in the history of the two organisations. First there was the pandemic, then the surge in inflation as lockdown restrictions were lifted. The cost of living problems were amplified by the war in Ukraine. Then, last October, two days before the start of the IMF/World Bank meetings in Marrakech - and just as things appeared to be calming down - Hamas launched its attack on Israel.