BANGKOK: The artificial intelligence boom has been a key driver of global growth, but also poses economic risks should investment in the technology falter, experts and policymakers said this week at the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok.
Propelled by spending on data centres and microchips, AI has helped cushion the economic shock of rising global energy prices caused by war in the Middle East, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.
The fund’s chief economist Silvana Tenreyro noted this week that global trade rose 8.3pc between 2023 and 2025 — a figure she said would be closer to 4.6pc without AI-related products.
“It is everywhere in the global economy,” Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said of AI.
“You see it in GDP.
You see it in the stock market.
You see it in the bond market… So it is here, and it’s just the beginning.” But some top officials gathered in Bangkok this week cautioned against relying too heavily on AI investment.
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh called AI the “most consequential change” to the global economy....
