Analysis-IMF/World Bank meetings leave developing countries with more questions than answers

By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder BANGKOK, Oct 18 (Reuters) Last week s meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank yielded no new answers for the developing world to the questions posed by a spreading Middle East war, continuing war in Ukraine, rising debt payments and a potential AI bubble. Not for the first time, lower-income countries are being rocked by the spillover from the actions of wealthier nations: rising debt ​service costs, higher inflation and the risk of falling ever further behind economically thanks to the AI boom. What they got was the stock advice ‌the global lenders always dish out: to shrink fiscal deficits and accelerate economic reforms to attract more private sector investment. Kristalina Georgieva, the first IMF chief from a developing nation Bulgaria said advanced economies were in fact the worst offenders on budget imbalances. She noted that developing countries debt levels had actually fallen in recent years, only for surging bond yiel