In a panel discussion on the Dutch radio station BNR Nieuwsradio on Monday 23 April 2018, Bas Jacobs, Professor of Public Finance and Economic Policy at Erasmus School of Economics, discusses the statement of the International Monetary Fund's policymaking committee saying that a strong world economy is threatened by increasing tension over trade and countries' heavy debt burden.
Longer-term prospects are clouded by sluggish growth in productivity and aging populations in wealthy nations. The lending agency urges countries to take advantage of the broadest-based economic expansion in a decade to cut government debt and to enact reforms that will make their economies more efficient. Other panel members are economists Martin Visser (Dutch newspaper Telegraaf) and Professor Steven Brakman (University of Groningen).