Jan 26, 2026
3 min read
ECB President, 'I don't see divisions in the world, but we need a plan B' ()
“We hear a lot of numbers and I want to draw attention to the fact that the numbers must be precisely defined,” European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said during the World Economic Outlook at the Davos Forum. “When you hear very high growth numbers, in most cases they are nominal numbers.”
"We have a responsibility to the truth. My economists often say that we have to separate the signal from the noise, and I think there was a lot of noise this week," Lagarde said in references to Donald Trump, who spoke of US growth being "explosive" with a fourth quarter estimate of 5.4%.
"I don't quite agree with the same line as Mark (Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, ed.). After 25 years of experience in the business world behind me, I think that we policy makers have arrived at a time when we have to look at plan B, or more plan Bs. But even if we think about these other ways, which were also called by Ursula von der Leyen, that we should not be convinced by Ursula vonder Leyen devonrk more Layen, "I am added that we should not talk about Layen."
The ECB president declined, saying "I have a lot of faith and a lot of love for the American people and I know that in the end, deep values will prevail. That's my hope and my assurance."
"Here, Ms. Lagarde said, there is something that concerns us all. We must pay close attention to the deepening and widening of the distribution of wealth and inequality. If we do not seriously address these, we will face very serious problems."
"It takes time to build trust, and it is not necessary to break it. I believe that trust has been broken, maybe a little, maybe a lot. But our duty, in the spirit of dialogue, is undoubtedly to repair what may have been damaged," he repeated.
Georgieva (IMF), increasingly multipolar world to face shocks
"There is no doubt that the world is changing, in fact it has been changing for a long time, there are two new features that we need to accept. The first is that we live in a very vulnerable world, we are caught in geographical surprises, by technology, by the climate. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, said this at the 'World Economic Outlook' conference in Davos.
"Secondly, we must recognize that we have entered a multipolar world. Today there are regions that have acquired economic and geopolitical weight that did not exist before. From the vantage point of the International Monetary Fund, I can say this: we welcome all 191 of our member countries with great care. Watch the world for what is happening."
Georgieva added, "The situation is quite simple: public debt has reached the level of 100% of GDP and growth is not strong enough. This creates a problem."
“We are studying what is happening in the labor market and three key observations are emerging. The first is a major shift in the demand for skills. In the next few years, in developed countries, 60% of jobs will be affected by AI and roles will be improved, changed or eliminated. Globally, the rate is 40%. This is like a tsunami in the labor market.”
"Another observation is at a micro level: one in ten advanced economies are already 'increased' by AI. Those who do these jobs earn more and spend more in the local economy, increasing demand for low-skilled jobs. Overall, employment also increases slightly."
"First, the jobs that AI eliminates often overlap with traditional entry-level jobs. As a result, it is harder for young people to enter the labor market. The second problem concerns the jobs that are not affected by AI: they remain the same, but are lower paid. 1 IMF. "The third point that concerns me the most concerns safety policies. We know how to make it safe and inclusive. This is an issue that should have been further explored." "My call is clear:let's wake up.Artificial intelligence is a reality and it is changing the world faster than us," Georgieva concluded.
