VOL. 38  NO. 9

At Global Finance, generating the report cards for central bank governors has always been a complex and thorough project. Scoring more than 100 governors from very different economies and with such different mandates for their central banks is a complex task. However, our commitment to applying similar analytical criteria for all ensures that our analysis is comprehensive and reliable, carrying important implications for the global economy.

This year, we had to deal with some additional and late-breaking developments: the Federal Reserve cut its interest rates by 50 basis points in September for the first time in more than four years. This move had a cascade effect involving many other central banks worldwide. The European Central Bank had cut its interest rates earlier this year and announced a new cut a week before the Fed’s cut. The Bank of Japan, on the other hand, raised its interest rates in July, and the People’s Bank of China announced recently to cut its rates in late September.

These monetary actions seem to bring the world economies into a new phase. Surely, the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington this year will focus extensively on that. Our report cards are based on the governors’ performance from June 2023 to June 2024. In the write-ups and interviews of governors, we updated as much as possible with the most recent monetary policy actions, but the “grades” have not been updated and probably would not have been different in any case.

Our cover story examines a soft-landing scenario for the global economy, which is quite different from the serious concerns about high inflation and the risk of a recession we had just a year ago.

In this issue, we also present other important features, including our annual selection of the best banks in the world in several sectors. We also add our annual supplements on Africa and Latin America, including Central America and the Caribbean. We cover many economic and financial developments in these regions with an eye on innovation and economic vibrancy in general. There is always so much to report.

Andrea Fiano | Editor at Large
[email protected]