Globally, the private sector is moving towards expanding the growth of tokenized assets trading, using private money channels (stablecoins) as payment systems. At the same time, the public sector, often central banks in alliance with private sector partners, is engaged in ambitious projects, exploring the feasibility of public payment systems using wholesale CBDCs to facilitate...Read More

In April 2023, Jake Sullivan, in a speech to the Brookings Institute, formally announced the replacement of what had become known since the1990s as the Washington Consensus with a New Washington Consensus. This paper defines and briefly describes the original Washington Consensus. It goes on to describe and discuss in detail the New Washington Consensus...Read More

The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s 22 April statement to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government suggests a significant shift in US policy towards Bank Swap Arrangements (BSAs), the international role of the Fed, and indeed the extent of the central bank’s independence.[i] Comments that must be understood in the context...Read More

The United States stands at a critical juncture in the evolution of the global financial order. For decades, the dollar’s dominance has rested on two pillars: the unrivalled liquidity of the US Treasury market and the political confidence that America’s fiscal and institutional system would remain credible and thus supportive of the continuation of the...Read More

Marginalisation of Multilateral Crisis Finance? Since the 2007-8 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) the Global Financial Safety Net (GFSN) has both significantly expanded and diversified. This has seen a steep decline in the IMF’s share of international liquidity crisis funding capacity, which also includes Bank Swap Arrangements (BSAs) and Regional Financial Arrangements—such as the European Stability...Read More

The EU-India renewed strategic partnership marks a pivotal shift amid US isolationism under President Trump and rising Indo-Pacific tensions. This new Fondation Robert Schuman report, written by GPI Associate Director and Head of the Europe Programme, Karine de Vergeron, analyses how the landmark Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Security Partnership bolster mutual stability, trade diversification,...Read More

Bangladesh-Myanmar relations are shaped by a complex mix of history, geography, trade, security issues, and humanitarian concerns such as the Rohingya crisis. Can economic and diplomatic engagements change this dynamic? Myanmar was the sixth nation to recognise Bangladesh as a sovereign nation following its independence in 1971. Formal diplomatic relations were established on 21 March...Read More

Introduction Until recently, partly due to Gillian Tett, the 2024 economic policy paper by Stephen Miran appeared to have been read by few mainstream economists. However, it had been the topic of much discussion within one of the three Maga groups, loosely attached to President Trump. These are the populist nationalist group led by Steve...Read More

On 4 October 1975, China officially established diplomatic relations with Bangladesh. Five decades later, both countries have made significant advancements in areas of economic and defence collaboration. 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-Bangladesh diplomatic relationship and is also the ‘China-Bangladesh Year of People-to-People Exchanges’. Despite the countries not sharing territorial borders, trade...Read More

Reeves has herself set two metrics against which her budget should be assessed: a) that current expenditure should be matched by tax income (in any one year), and b) that there must be fiscal room, via borrowing, to fund public investment expenditure. These are her fiscal rules in outline. Generally, this is a sensible and...Read More