Economic Nationalism in the Era of Geofragmentation: What Does it Mean for Developing Countries?

December 6, 2023

The Policy Center for the New South is organizing a webinar on “Economic Nationalism in the Era of Geofragmentation: What Does it Mean for Developing Countries?” on December 6th, 2023 at 3.00 PM (GMT+1), in the framework of the PCNS Webinar Series – The Global Economy in Transition: Implications for Developing Countries.

The global economic landscape is witnessing a surge in economic nationalism and geofragmentation, presenting challenges for developing countries. The Policy Center for the New South is organizing a webinar to delve into the potential impact of these trends on developing nations worldwide.

This webinar aims to explore how economic nationalism policies, including protectionism and import substitution, may result in heightened trade barriers and restrictions on foreign investment. Such developments could diminish the integration of developing countries into the global economy, with consequential effects on growth and poverty alleviation.

Moreover, the webinar will assess the influence of rising economic nationalism and geofragmentation on developing countries' endeavors to integrate into regional trading blocs. While the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) aspires to establish a single market for goods across the continent, the emergence of regional trading blocs in other parts of the world may pose challenges to global economic integration efforts.

The potential implications extend to the realm of investment, where developing countries heavily depend on foreign investment for economic development. Any obstacles to such investment could impede growth prospects. Additionally, the industrialization efforts of developing nations may be affected if economic nationalism policies stimulate the establishment of domestic industries that could compete with their nascent industrial sectors.

Speakers
Abdelaaziz Ait Ali
Head - Research in Economics
Abdelaaziz Ait Ali is a principal Economist and head of the Research Department at the Policy Center for the New South. He joined the Center in 2014 after five years of experience at the Central Bank of Morocco. He worked as an economist in the International Studies and Relations Department and was analyzing the real estate price index and financial asset prices for monetary policy and financial stability purposes. Since then, Abdelaaziz has focused on cyclical and structural issues of the Moroccan economy, including macroeconomic management and industrial policy design. He has published articles on the reform of the exchange rate regime in the Moroccan economy and its implications for macroeconomic regulation, as well as on the evolution of the macroeconomic framework over th ...
Guntram Wolff
Director, Bruegel , Belgium
Guntram Wolff is Director of Bruegel. His research focuses on the European economy and governance, on fiscal and monetary policy and global finance. He regularly testifies to the European Finance Ministers' ECOFIN meeting, the European Parliament, the German Parliament (Bundestag) and the French Parliament (Assemblée Nationale). From 2012-16, he was a member of the French primeminister's Conseil d'Analyse Economique.  Guntram Wolff is also a member of the Solvay Brussels School's international advisory board of the Brussels Free University. He joined Bruegel from the European Commission, where he worked on the macroeconomics of the euro area and the reform of euro area governance. Prior to joining the Commission, he was coordinating the research team on fiscal policy at Deuts ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    Hung Tran
    February 23, 2024
    Heightened geopolitical rivalry has greatly complicated the challenges facing the Global South. Countries identifying with the Global South now have to deal with the long-standing problem of promoting changes in the current international political and economic system to better serve their development needs, while navigating the geopolitically driven fragmentation of trade and investment flows. Moreover, the strategic approaches that could be adopted to deal with those challenges are ...
  • February 20, 2024
    Le Policy Center for the New South et le Groupe d'évaluation indépendante (IEG) de la Banque mondiale organisent un évènement sous le thème «La Banque mondiale au Maroc : apprendre et s'adapter pour avoir un impact ». L'événement examine les conclusions d'une évaluation récente du sou...
  • Authors
    Amshika Amar
    February 16, 2024
    When countries face external financial shocks, they must rely on financial buffers to counter such shocks. The global financial safety net is the set of institutions and arrangements that provide lines of defense for economies against such shocks. From any individual country standpoint, there are three lines of defense in their external financial safety nets: international reserves, pooled resources (swap lines and plurilateral financing arrangements), and the International Monetar ...
  • Authors
    February 14, 2024
    Greater female participation in the labor market and in international trade have been recognized as important drivers for economic growth and essential targets in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, achieving both targets simultaneously will be difficult, if not impossible, in most Middle East and North African (MENA) countries without additional policies to eliminate the remarkably high levels of gender inequality in the labor market. I ...
  • Authors
    Ali Elguellab
    Elhadj Ezzahid
    February 12, 2024
    Dans ce rapport, nous proposons d’utiliser une nouvelle approche pour analyser les structures productives au Maroc. Nous appliquons les outils de la théorie des réseaux aux tableaux des échanges inter-industriels de l'économie marocaine. Nos résultats montrent que le réseau national de production présente des caractéristiques intuitives dans le sens qu’elles sont liées aux processus de production. La structure de ce réseau peut être représentée sous la forme d'un papillon, avec les ...
  • Authors
    Roxy Ndebumadu
    February 9, 2024
    Councilwoman Roxy Ndebumadu is a technology entrepreneur, and special advisor on beneficial AI, online safety and emerging technology. As a two term-elected official, she represents the City of Bowie, the fifth largest city in Maryland. She is also a 2023 alumna of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program. Learn more about her here. Amidst the churning tides of globalization, in which currents of tradition meet the winds of change, there is a call for a new international c ...
  • February 8, 2024
    Depuis 2016, on assiste à une dynamique de création de fonds souverains africains. En 2023, on recense 21 pays et 24 fonds souverains. Sur la seule période 2016-23, celle de la deuxième vague, huit pays vont se doter d’un premier fonds souverain, et d’un deuxième, dans le cas du Maroc, en 2022. Cette étude rappelle tout d’abord l’historique d’une création qui commence, dès 1994, au Botswana, avec le Pula Fund, précisant pour chacun des 24 fonds leur date de création, leur ...
  • February 6, 2024
    يخصص برنامج "حديث الثلاثاء" حلقة هذا الأسبوع لمناقشة موضوع التحديات العالمية الكبرى التي تواجهها البنوك المركزية. إذ تقف هذه المؤسسات المالية عند مفترق طرق حيث تواجه عدة عقبات في السنوات الأخيرة، منها التضخم وارتفاع معدل الفائدة والآثار المالية الراجعة إلى تغير المناخ وكدى تأثير عدم الم...