INVC NEWS
Seoul, Korea ,
Participants agreed that a lack of inclusion can fray social cohesion and undermine the durability and resilience of growth, including by weakening support for growth-enhancing reforms and spurring governments to adopt populist policies.
· Participants agreed that inequality is not just a consequence of market forces (such as technology) but also of macroeconomic and structural policies, and that policies to promote economic opportunities for all are key to foster inclusive growth.
On November 29, 2018, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Korea Development Institute (KDI) hosted a conference on “Achieving Inclusive Growth: A Policy Debate” in Seoul, Korea. The President of the KDI, Jeong Pyo Choi, the Vice Chairman of Presidential Committee on Jobs, Mok-hee Rhee, the Managing Director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde (via videoconference) and Jonathan D. Ostry, Deputy Director at the Research Department of the IMF, provided introductory remarks and opened the conference. Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Jeffrey Sachs delivered the keynote speeches.
Achieving inclusive growth is one of the critical challenges of our time. That is because, while economic growth provides the basis for lifting living standards, to be truly sustained its benefits must reach all people. Some lessons drawn from the shared experience of participants are that: (i) a lack of inclusion can fray social cohesion and undermine the durability and resilience of growth; (ii) inequality is not just a consequence of market forces (such as technology), but also of macroeconomic and structural policies; (iii) and that policies to promote economic opportunities for all are key to foster productivity and support a broader sharing of the benefits of growth.
This high-level conference provided a forum for policymakers to share their experiences related to inequality, gender diversity, and financial inclusion and to discuss the policy options available to achieve more inclusive growth.
Speakers on the program included policy makers and senior officials as well as distinguished academics, economic analysts, and market participants.
