The World Bank, the IMF, and the U.S. election.

I'm David Brancaccio in New York.

Leaders of Finance from around the world gather starting today in Washington, D.C.

for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The IMF is an emergency lender for countries in crisis.

The World Bank has a focus on economic development in low-income countries. Now these meetings come at a

fraught time for the global economy as Marketplace's Henry Epp reports.

Looming over these meetings is the U.S. presidential election next month which could determine whether the U.S. takes a more

protectionist approach on the world stage.

If former President Donald Trump wins, he's promised to slap tariffs on all imports to the

U.S. which could spark broader trade wars.

Also in the background are Russia's war in Ukraine and Israel's battles in Gaza and

Lebanon which have upended parts of the economy.

On top of all that is an outlook for global economic growth

that IMF managing director Krista Gorgieva called Lackluster. At her curtain

razor speech ahead of this week's meeting she praised policy makers

for helping to tame inflation in the last few years but she warned that the

global economy is not growing at a fast enough pace to fully tackle the major

issues that the IMF and World Bank seek to solve.

Those include eliminating poverty, creating new jobs, and financing a transition to

cleaner energy to deal with climate change.

But leaders will still try to grapple with these issues in

...