(Replace duplicate words in weather section)
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 20 (Reuters) – World leaders and business leaders left a heated World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on Friday with positive views on how the world will tackle its biggest challenges by 2023.
Here’s what we learned:
Economy: The darkness and doom entering Davos turned into cautious optimism by the end and the global economic outlook for the year ahead looks more dire.
But the WEF’s annual meeting was filled with discussion of a number of risks, including inflationary pressures from China’s opening up and rising debt problems in developing countries. Not to mention that the hardest thing for Western countries is yet to come – leading to an increase in 2%.
“Things aren’t perfect, but they’re better than they could have been.” – Daniel Pinto, JP Morgan chairman and chief operating officer.
UKRAINE: For Ukraine’s allies, Davos is about doubling down on better weapons and financial support for Kyiv to defend itself against Russia. Outside the West however, the fear of economic collapse proved to be a global divide as some diplomats favored a quick return to the negotiating table.
“This week listening to politicians, I was surprised in a way because I felt that no one knows exactly where we are going and what the solution could be.” – Tanja Fajon Slovenia Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“If we want peace talks tomorrow, we need to provide more weapons today.” – NATO secret General Jens Stoltenberg.
Trade: Beware of cronyism, warns WTO members Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the big three trading powers of the United States, Europe and China push their new industrial policies.
What’s unclear is how the rest of the world will adapt to new trade policies that protect workers and streamline supply chains.
“This is becoming a rich country’s game, right? We can support this, you can support that – what about the poor countries, who have budget room? They’re being left out in the cold.” -Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
Climate: Carbon gets a warm welcome as renewables companies and big oil giants rub shoulders. Awash in cash After a year of high oil prices, oil producers can invest in green energy. But efforts by leaders to promise green and climate finance are showing signs of exhaustion.
Outside, Greta Thunberg and other activists called on energy workers to stop dragging the transition to clean energy. Inside, political leaders such as Kier Starmer railed against new oil investments and Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman advocated for financial losses and damages.
“How do we get there? The lesson I learned last year … is money, money, money, money, money, money, money.” – US climate representative John Kerry meets the global warming goals of the Paris Agreement.
TECH: Davos highlights the potential and risks of the industry.
As the CEO of Microsoft Corp. and other Silicon Valley leaders considered artificial intelligence like ChatGPT to transform their businesses, they announced the layoff of tens of thousands of workers worldwide. An overview of high-flying cloud computing costs from the business front.
Businesses are “under a huge cost burden. They need to find a way to do the same thing cheaply.” – Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies
CHINA: China declared itself open for business in a speech by Vice President Liu He that was well-received but raised fears of an escalation and left people waiting to see what this would mean for tensions with the United States.
“The current growth forecast for China is 4.5% and I wouldn’t be surprised when that picks up.” – Credit Suisse CEO Axel Lehmann.
Cost Reduction Policy: IEA Director Fatih Birol called a game changer for climate change, Europeans have a lot to think about when it comes to America’s Cost Reduction Policy.
The European Union said it would mobilize state aid and government funding to keep companies from moving to the United States.
“The main question is not China first, US first, Europe first. The main question for all of us is climate first.” – French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire.
Financial services: Financial institutions worldwide are struggling to adjust for the reduction, while dealing with many other key factors. With the threat of inflation still looming over the central bank, financial institutions face regulators for higher capital levels to prepare for the fall, prompting some transactions not useful.
The pressure is increasing on them to raise funds for global change and a greener future faster than they are doing now. Other external events such as geopolitics and cybersecurity risks complicate matters. A strong bond.
“We have to stay in that period until we move into long-term neutral territory so that we can return inflation to 2% in due time.” – Christine Lagarde. For daily Davos updates in your inbox sign up for the Reuters Daily Brief here. Statement from Reuters Davos Newsroom; Edited by Leela de Kretser and Alexander Smith.
