Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the International Women’s Day event organised by World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva

Geneva, 8 March 2023

It is a pleasure to be here at the WTO to discuss women and the economy on such an important occasion: International Women’s Day.

And this discussion is happening at a critical time: geopolitical tensions and the fragmenting of world trade are threatening to roll back decades of advances in women’s economic empowerment.

Since the great financial crisis, the global economy has been hit by a series of unprecedented shocks – most recently, Russia’s war against Ukraine. And all this has taken its toll on trade growth, which has plateaued as a share of world GDP.^[1]

Instead, protectionism is on the rise – and may well get worse – as countries reconfigure their supply chains to align with new strategic goals. The number of trade restrictions in place has jumped tenfold over the last decade.^[2]

This is not to say we are facing an outright deglobalisation – far from it. The powerful economic logic underpinning the gains from international trade remains as valid as ever for governments and firms alike.

But the nature of globalisation is changing. We are likely to see more trade within blocs as countries that share common values and interests deepen their trade ties to increase their resilience to external shocks and threats. And the changing nature of globalisation can have implications for women…