Global trade grew 8.3% between 2023 and 2025, boosted by a 29% surge in AI-related trade, without which growth would have been just 4.6%. (Envato Elements pic)BANGKOK: The strong demand for AI has bolstered growth in China, India and other Asian countries and outpaced the overall growth in global trade, the IMF's new chief economist Silvana Tenreyro said on Tuesday.
Global trade would have grown at a far slower rate without the AI boost, Tenreyro told reporters at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Bangkok.
A long-time professor at the London School of Economics, Tenreyro started her new job at the IMF in August.
Tenreyro said the AI-related boom in investment and trade had been a key driver of global growth, but AI supply chains were highly concentrated in a few countries and sectors, which created potential chokepoints.
