The New Development Bank (NDB) will fully embrace AI, in terms of both supporting the industry's development and incorporating the technology in its operation, according to president of the organization Dilma Rousseff.
The NDB will maintain its direction of supporting digital infrastructure development in the coming years, Rousseff, who will start her second five-year term as NBD president in July, told China Media Group (CMG) in an interview in Shanghai on Monday, while giving a special mention of Chinese AI model DeepSeek.
"We will continue to invest in digital infrastructure. Digitalization and the digital economy are prerequisites for achieving this goal. In my view, China presents an example that must be taken into consideration, and that is the emergence of the big AI model DeepSeek. It proves that it is possible to create groundbreaking new technologies using existing technology. Previously, Western countries blocked (China's import of) chips to prevent China from advancing in the field of artificial intelligence. DeepSeek is an inspiring case for the Global South," Rousseff said.
Rousseff also says the NDB is actively studying how it can utilize the power of AI.
"I even hope to promote the use of DeepSeek at the New Development Bank. We have already started doing this, engaging with various fields to understand where we can apply it because this is not traditionally the bank's area of expertise. We want to become a multilateral bank that embraces new technologies, and that is our responsibility," she said.
New Development Bank president highlights need to fully embrace AI
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its global economic growth forecasts for 2026 to 3.1 percent in the World Economic Outlook (WEO) report published on Tuesday, while keeping its projection for 2027 at 3.2 percent.
This marks a deceleration from the estimated 3.4 percent growth achieved in 2025. Before the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, the bottom-up forecasts for global growth would have been 3.4 percent in 2026 and 3.2 percent in 2027.
The forecast incorporates the impact of the war and assumes that it will be limited in duration, intensity and scope, with disruptions fading by mid-2026.
Under the reference forecast, global headline inflation is expected to increase to 4.4 percent in 2026 and decline to 3.7 percent in 2027.
If the conflict and the ensuing spike in oil prices last longer, global economic growth in 2026 will fall to 2.5 percent, while global inflation will climb to 5.4 percent, according to the report.
In extreme cases, global economic growth in 2026 could drop to two percent, the report warned.
To be specific, the U.S. economy is projected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2026 and 2.1 percent in 2027, although higher trade barriers introduced since April 2025 are expected to continue to weigh on activity.
In the euro area, growth is projected to decline from 1.4 percent in 2025 to 1.1 percent in 2026 before edging up to 1.2 percent in 2027. The forecasts for 2026 and 2027 are each 0.2 percentage point lower than those compared in the January 2026 WEO Update.
The 2026 growth forecast for emerging market and developing economies is revised down by 0.3 percentage point, to 3.9 percent, while the outlook for advanced economies remains broadly unchanged. With risks still tilted to the downside since the January 2026 WEO Update, the IMF suggested a comprehensive policy package combining domestic measures with coordinated international actions to strengthen resilience and foster adaptability.
It also stated in the report that "trade restrictions play a limited role in correcting imbalances but can worsen output," and urged countries to cooperate and take coordinated actions to restore stability to international economic relations.
IMF lowers global growth forecast for 2026 to 3.1 pct
