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

  • December 13, 2018
    Moderator John Yearwood, Executive Board, International Press Institute Speakers Uri Dadush, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South Anabel Gonzalez, Former Minister of Foreign Trade, Republic of Costa Rica Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Founder and Chief Executive, International Centre...
  • December 13, 2018
    Moderator John Yearwood, Executive Board, International Press Institute Speakers Uri Dadush, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South Anabel Gonzalez, Former Minister of Foreign Trade, Republic of Costa Rica Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz, Founder and Chief Executive, International Centre...
  • Authors
    December 6, 2018
    This Policy Paper aims to provide a better understanding of the drivers of youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by examining some common factors and then delving deeper into the case of Morocco, a relatively stable country that has historically been a source of large emigration, especially towards Europe. The MENA region has some of the highest total and youth unemployment rates in the world. High youth unemployment is especially worrisome because it ...
  • Authors
    Tiago Ribeiro dos Santos
    December 3, 2018
    Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson caught policymaker’s attention to the critical role of institutions for development. Their work gives too much emphasis to the prospects of revolution, however. A reading of the World Bank’s World Development Report of 2017 points to directions that all actors involved in the process, whether domestic or international, elite or non-elite, can take to improve societies. ...
  • November 29, 2018
    - Emerging market economies (EMs), as a group, continue to exhibit solid growth. This is the case especially in Asia and among oil-exporters, supported by growth in the advanced economies, the recovery in world trade, and the resilience of non-oil commodity prices. - However, financial markets have become very nervous about the prospects for several EM, reflecting specific weaknesses in several countries – Argentina and Turkey stand out - and the prospect of higher international in ...
  • Authors
    Yana Myachenkova
    November 27, 2018
    - The trade agreements that the European Union has with North African countries – with Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia – are often seen as having delivered disappointing results since they came into force during the 2000s. The four North African countries have seen insufficient growth in their exports to the EU, and have undergone only limited diversification. In the meantime, the EU’s exports to North Africa have grown quite rapidly. - Economic growth in North Africa has been ...
  • Authors
    Axel Berger
    Andreas Freytag
    Simon J. Evenett
    Christian von Haldenwang
    Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz
    Raul Ochoa
    Agustin Redonda
    Karl P. Sauvant
    November 26, 2018
    *The recommendations put forth below have been published, both print and online, in the Financial Times.  The leaders of the G20 will meet on 30 November and 1 December in Buenos Aires for their annual summit. They need to acknowledge that the last two years have been characterized by strong headwinds for the world economy. This time, however, it is not a mixture of poor macroeconomic policies and bad business decisions – as in 2008 when they met in Washington for their first summi ...
  • Authors
    Bouchra Rahmouni
    November 22, 2018
    Nowadays, links between development and security are widely recognized by many, just as they were during the development of the Marshall Plan. As mentioned in the United Nations "A More Secure World" report, threats to one are intrinsically a threat to all. Thus, 17 UN-agreed goals were agreed upon to help end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all by 2030, including goal 16 for "peaceful and inclusive societies". Last month, the UN’s inaugural Africa Dialogue S ...
  • November 14, 2018
    Depuis plus de 70 ans, le franc CFA est la monnaie commune à quatorze pays du continent africain. Procéder à une comparaison entre les taux d’inflation et de croissance des pays membres de l’Union économique monétaire de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (UEMOA) et de la Communauté économique et monétaire de l’Afrique centrale (CEMAC), permet d’analyser les taux d’inflation et de croissance d’une vaste région regroupant deux communautés : l’une, ayant choisi le franc CFA comme monnaie, composée ...