REGIONAL OFFICE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (OAP)

Asia Pacific Regional Seminar

World Economic Outlook:
Private Sector Debt & Global Trade and Value Chains

The IMF Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific hosted a virtual regional seminar on two analytical chapters of the latest World Economic Outlook – Private Sector Debt (ch. 2) and Global Trade and Value Chains (ch. 4) – with two guest speakers from the IMF’s Research Department. Christoffer Koch discussed the surge in consumer and business indebtedness during the pandemic and how it affects the recovery, and Adil Mohommad presented analytical work on international trade flows during the pandemic and policy implications. About 80 people attended the seminar from the region and beyond.

Agenda:

Speakers:

• Christoffer Koch is an economist in the World Economic Studies Division in the IMF’s Research Department. Prior to joining the Fund in 2021, Mr. Koch spent a decade at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of St Andrews and a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

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• Adil Mohommad is an economist in the International Monetary Fund. He has been with the IMF’s Research Department since 2018. In his current position he has worked on a variety of topics including trade, intergenerational mobility, and various aspects of climate policy including impact on labor markets, sequencing and diffusion of climate policies, and the impact of the pandemic on climate policy preferences. He previously worked in the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, with experience over a wide range of countries including Australia, Bhutan, India, Nepal, New Zealand, and Tuvalu. He holds an MA in Economics from Delhi School of Economics (Delhi University), and a PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland.