The meetings, that will be held virtually amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, parliamentarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organizations and academics to discuss issues that grasp the global attention, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness.

Also, they involve holding seminars, regional briefings, press conferences, and many other events focused on the global economy, international development, and the world's financial system that will be held virtually as well.

Ahead of the meetings, the IMF and the WBG published number of reports and blogs that touched upon the key themes of the global economic outlook, including in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that featured Egypt’s economic outlook projections as well amid the ongoing challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its regional economic updated report released Thursday, the World Bank raised its forecasts for Egypt’s real GDP growth for 2021 to 5.5 percent, up from 4.5 percent predicted in June before hitting 6 percent in 2022.

It also explained that the performance of oil importing countries (OICs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been dominated by the recovery of Egypt’s economy, which accounts for more than half of this group’s GDP.

Meanwhile, the report estimated the cumulative cost of the pandemic on the MENA region’s GDP in 2021 is expected to be around $200 billion.

In the annual meetings’ curtain raiser event, held on Tuesday, the IMF’s managing director Kristalina Georgieva revealed that the IMF has downgraded slightly its projections on the global economic outlook in 2021 owing to the slowdown in vaccines roll out; especially in the low-income developing countries and countries with conflicts.

She also noted that global GDP is expected to see $5.3 trillion in losses over the coming five years if there is a delay in vaccine rollouts, especially in emerging and developing countries, according to the IMF’s managing director Kristalina Georgieva.

On the other hand, as the pandemic accelerates crypto ecosystem growth, the IMF said that this growth entails both opportunities and challenges, which could affect the global financial stability.

The IMF expected that central banks in developing countries and emerging markets will expand in issuing their own digital currencies going forward.

On Tuesday, the IMF is going to launch its updated report on the world economic outlook and the financial stability report.

It will also release its fiscal monitor report on Wednesday.