Economist Gita Gopinath: 'Rising imbalances among major powers threaten growth and fuel protectionism'

Gita Gopinath, former chief economist and deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is a professor of economics at Harvard University. Alongside economists Hélène Rey, Axel Weber and Chong’en Bai, she co-wrote a report commissioned by the French presidency of the G7 on global imbalances that threaten economic prosperity and stability. She spoke at the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum, held at the Paris School of Economics on June 18 and 19, 2026.

What are the major global imbalances threatening the economy?

Global imbalances are the reflection, in each country, of unbalanced growth models in which the gap between saving and investment widens. They are each time characterized by a widening of the current account deficit in the United States, that is to say that investment there far exceeds the level of saving. This deficit is financed by the surpluses of other countries. It was Japan at the beginning of the 1980s, then China and the countries of South-East Asia at the time of the 2008–09 financial crisis, and today it is still China, with Europe, to a lesser extent.

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