In the coming week, the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings wrap up.

The NRA's leadership forum convenes amid new U.S. mass shooting concerns, and the UN Security Council discusses Libya.

It's April 13, 2023 in time for the world next week. I'm Bob McMahon.

And I'm Carly Ann Robbins.

So Bob, welcome back.

We missed you last week.

So let's start where you are, Washington, D.C.

These past few days, the IMF and the World Bank, as you said, have been holding their annual spring meetings, and I'm sure snarling traffic around the council's D.C. These past few days, the IMF and the World Bank, as you said, have been holding their

annual spring meetings, and I'm sure snarling traffic around the council's D.C. headquarters.

So the fund's latest economic outlook is not particularly reassuring. The headline I saw on

their website was a rocky recovery. What do we expect from this year's meetings? What are they

going to tell us about the future of the global economy?

Well, these meetings, there's two a year, spring and fall. These meetings are always a time for temperature taking, stock taking of where the world is at,

summing up the big items that are influencing world events. We're in a position where we're pretty much emerged from the pandemic, for example, but although

there's still pandemic repercussions that are hitting countries or the countries are dealing

with. We're in the midst, very much in the midst of the ongoing impacts of the war in Ukraine.

And then we're dealing with some big structural issues that are getting a lot of attention that have been

getting attention this week in the run-up to where the big ministers come for these meetings,

Carla, which is typically the last weekend of these spring meetings. And that's debt restructuring.

It's a serious concern. Countries indebtedness is mounting, and the ability of the big bodies,

the world bodies to help them has been challenged

in many ways. There's a fascinating piece in the economists this week about the IMF going through an

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