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The 2024 World Bank Group (WBG) and IMF Annual Meetings took place from Monday, October 21 to Saturday, October 26. This year¡¯s theme Delivering with Ambition reflected the evolution journey the WBG has undergone under President Banga¡¯s tenure. Under the central theme, the two flagship topics were and . The Nordic Baltic Office welcomed delegations from all eight countries of the constituency, and it was a fruitful week of meetings.

Already during UNGA, a month before the Annual Meetings, Denmark kick-started the International Development Association (Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ) replenishment by announcing a 40% increase in its Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ21 contribution compared to Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ20. Following suit, Latvia announced an early pledge of a 60% increase in its contribution during the Development Committee (DC) Plenary. These pledges marked record early financial commitments and set the tone for the concluding December replenishment pledging meeting which will take place in Seoul, South Korea. During the annual meetings, Lithuania also announced a likely increase to its Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ Pledge.

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The annual meeting between the Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ President, currently Ajay Banga, and the Nordic Baltic Governors to the Bank took place in Oslo in September 2023 hosted by the Norwegian Development Minister Anne B¨¦ate Tvinnereim. The discussion was open and frank and confirmed strong support from Nordic Baltic countries to the Bank and its direction of travel in challenging times. The Nordic-Baltic Ministers welcomed the World Bank Evolution and the Bank¡¯s important role in supporting Ukraine, and expressed strong support for an ambitious recapitalization of Å·ÃÀÈÕb´óƬ. Ministers also emphasized the important role for the World Bank in financing global challenges, in particular climate change, and in assisting countries in increasing their domestic resource mobilization and in directing these resources towards critical development needs. President Banga expressed his appreciation for the strong support from the Nordic-Baltic Constituency.

This event advanced the thinking about the rising concentration of wealth, income, carbon, and the role of progressive taxation. Today, the richest 10% in the world owns 76% of global household wealth, while the bottom half owns barely 2%. Furthermore, the richest 10% of emitters are responsible for close to 50% of all emissions, while the bottom 50% produce 12% of the total. The challenges of the 21st century are not feasible without significant redistribution of income and wealth inequalities and targeting wealthy polluters. In this talk, the guest speaker, economist and professor Lucas Chancel presented the World Inequality Report 2022, which serves as a framework for learning about all different pieces in the inequality puzzle and discussed about the redistribution tools to design fairer development pathways.

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