The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Monday that the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and attacks by Houthi rebels off the coast of Yemen, notably affecting the Suez Canal, pose threats to the global economy.
The war in the Gaza Strip has already weighed on the economy of the Middle East and North Africa region, Kristalina Georgieva said at the World Government Summit in Dubai, an annual event bringing together leading business figures. and politics, which runs until Wednesday.
“I especially fear the longevity of the conflict, because if it continues, the risk of spillover increases,” she added.
“At present, we see a risk of overflow in the Suez Canal”, a maritime area essential for global trade, continued Mr.me Georgieva, in a context of attacks on ships by Yemeni rebels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, saying she was acting in “solidarity” with Hamas.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned in late January that the volume of commercial traffic passing through the Suez Canal had fallen by more than 40% over the previous two months.
If hostilities spread, “it could be more problematic for the world as a whole,” lamented Mr.me Georgieva.
Regional climbing
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from the Gaza Strip carried out an attack on Israeli soil which resulted in the death of more than 1,160 people, the majority civilians killed the same day, according to an AFP count carried out based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel launched an offensive in the Palestinian territory which left more than 28,300 people dead, the vast majority of them women, children and adolescents, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Fears of a regional escalation of the conflict between Israel and its American ally, on the one hand, and armed groups close to Iran which support Hamas in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, on the other hand , have continued to grow.
“I expect that, by the middle of the year, interest rates will move in the direction of inflation over the past year,” said the IMF director, when asked about the rate cut of interest in the major economies.
The President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, for his part declared that “what is happening in Gaza, but also the challenges of Ukraine […] and the Red Sea” were among the main challenges to the global economic outlook.
“When you add these variables to what is already likely to be the lowest growth rate in the last 55 years […]this is something we need to monitor closely,” he added during the summit.