WASHINGTON: As the global recovery gathers pace, the IMF is turning up the volume on its call for wealthy countries to address popular anger over the impact of globalisation and head off the threat of protectionism. The renewed push comes as finance ministers from 189 countries gather for the fund’s semiannual meeting Friday and Saturday, in a tense atmosphere of rising anti-trade rhetoric in many advanced economies.

“This sentiment of populism in the views of many is fuelled by the feeling of being excluded, or being left out,” IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said Thursday night.

“What better than more growth, more equitably shared, in order to respond.” The fund for years has been calling for countries to drive towards what it calls more inclusive growth with programs to help those hurt by globalisation and trade — including safety nets for those who lose their jobs — but typically it has centred on developing nations.

Now the focus is on advanced economies and the message has taken on greater urgency, amid anti-internationalist sentiment evident in the election of US President Donald Trump, in last summer’s British vote to leave the European Union and in the bitter French election campaign.

Lagarde repeatedly has stressed that giving in to protectionism will not help those on the margins and in fact will make matters worse by driving up prices and eroding global growth.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2017