The Pandemic Response: Exchange with World Bank Group and Deutsche Bundesbank

On Monday, 5 October 2020, the Presidents of the World Bank Group, the Deutsche Bundesbank and Frankfurt School of Finance & Management exchanged views on the global impact of the pandemic. The event was hosted by Frankfurt School and broadcast via live stream from the AI Lab on campus.

Under the title "The Pandemic Response", the exchange on the global impact of COVID-19 and the challenges of building a resilient and at the same time socially inclusive recovery was the focus of the event. Asiya S Mohammed, CEO of Conflict Women Ltd and Frankfurt School EMBA Alum, moderated the event. At the beginning, Dr Jens Weidmann, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, gave an introduction to the topic. In addition to the economic situation in Germany, he drew particular attention to the global perspective "Coronavirus affects everyone, but not equally." Dr Weidmann continued: "The German economy is likely to have grown strongly in the third quarter, albeit from a very depressed level. Though the rebound initially appeared V-shaped, it is in fact becoming flatter. But a slowdown such as this has been expected. The recovery of the German economy is likely to be protracted and will remain incomplete for some time."

In his subsequent speech, David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group, stressed the economic nature of the pandemic. "The global economic response has already been much greater than we expected at the beginning of this crisis". He emphasised four aspects for the recovery, alleviation of poverty and inequality, restoration of human capital, reduction of the debt burden (especially of the poorest countries) and global cooperation to jointly shape reconstruction.  

Prof Nils Stieglitz, President of Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, also spoke with David Malpass calling on government to support entrepreneurship and the private enterprise during the recovery from the pandemic. Frankfurt School's students were also eager to adress some of their own pressing questions directly to the President of the World Bank Group. The online event was a an excellent kick-off to the upcoming Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Board of Governors of the World Bank Group.

The recording of the online event can be found here.