Day 5 Davos 2025: Live coverage and what to know

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Børge Brende, President and Chief Executive Officer, World Economic Forum; speaking in Closing Remarks session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 24/1/2025, 12:00 – 12:15 at Congress Centre - Congress Hall. Plenary. Copyright: World Economic Forum / Jason Alden

Here's a snapshot of everything you need to know about Day 5 of Davos 2025.

Gayle Markovitz
Head, Written and Audio Content, World Economic Forum
This article is part of: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
  • The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting takes place in Davos from 20-24 January 2025.
  • Here's a snapshot of everything you need to know about Day 5 of Davos 2025.

And that's a wrap on the fifth and final day of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos.

Here's a rundown of the key sessions to watch back, snippets from the conversations in the corridors, essential reading and coverage of the highlights.

Sessions to watch today

All times below are in GMT+1.

With 40% of land degraded globally, the consequences are starting to be felt in industry: a fall in agricultural productivity, polluted waterways and increased frequency of droughts. Ibrahim Thiaw, Undersecretary-General of the United Nations; Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) joins leaders from politics, business, and civil society to discuss how to reverse this trend.

Thiaw explained the positive impacts of restoring land and said it's a "massive undertaking" from the public and private sector that needs to be prioritized. Iraq's President, Abdulatif Rashid, echoed the sentiment. He said, "land restoration is an urgent reality" and he shared Iraqi strategies for rising to the challenge.

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Some 6 billion people live in middle-income countries yet growth in many of these economies is stagnating or slowing due to global disruptions. This panel met to discuss how leaders can challenge the status quo to overcome a premature slowdown in development.

These major world powers are bound by a high level of mutual economic dependency. In this session, their future relationship is debated - how will they balance their continued dialogue and engagement with the pursuit of their geo-economic interests?

Growth is slow but stable, inflation has gradually declined in advanced economies and trade trends have turned positive. Yet challenges remain for the global economy. Economic heavyweights including Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, weigh in on the 2025 economic landscape.

Blackrock's Laurence D. Fink suggested there's too much pessimism around Europe. On the US - he thinks it can build on the foundation of its capital-raising strengths to unleash entrepreneurism and creativity. "The reality is the economy is larger than any one political party".

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A vote of confidence for Europe then? Lagarde underscored some positives. GDP, talent, savings, interest rates going down... she sees "huge potential". She also says the US Inflation Reduction Act has been effectively dismantled - with global repercussions.

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Georgieva's message for the audience was that productivity is the key to growth. She says this explains the outlook for the US vis a vis emerging economies and Europe. "Capital has to have long legs and go where it makes the biggest difference", she added, " if countries want to move forward, they have to be very aggressive in opening up opportunities for entrepreneurship. And yes, Europe has to have deep capital markets."

My advice to my fellow Europeans is more confidence. Believe in yourself and most importantly, tell others that you do.

Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

She also spoke about the US culture of confidence in contrast to Europe's culture of "modesty". This drives success, she explained, and encouraged Europe to learn from it.

Fink suggested inflation is the best barometer of the global economy's health - he's not convinced that inflation won't persist as a challenge and warned against complacency. And deficits are clear to see in the yield curve - debt is a problem. He sees "probabilities of rate hikes".

On China - inflation isn't an issue, said Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of Singapore. He also spoke about a "global industrial policy". He later warned against policy that is driven by politics rather than an understanding of economics. He says he sees problems coming from countries which develop their own capabilities rather than constraining someone else's. He says the first spurs innovation, while the second "stifles long-term growth".

Faisal Alibrahim, Ministry of Economy and Planning of Saudi Arabia, reminded the panel of the importance of energy security for global growth and security and spoke of the "energy transition imperative".

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To mark the end of the 55th Annual Meeting in Davos, the Forum's President and CEO, Børge Brende, reflects on the learnings, progress made and next steps from the past week.

Conversations in the corridors

Our team has been out and about speaking to participants, asking them to relay some of their thoughts on what they've heard and what they hope for this Davos 2025.

From climate action to AI and global health to conflict, these are some of the hot topics on people's minds.

Things you might have missed

The atmosphere on day four was charged, with the newly sworn-in US President Donald Trump delivering an address followed by a special Q&A with business leaders. "America is back and open for business," he said.

In other sessions, leaders sparred on key issues - from tariffs to tech and energy security to neurodiversity.

Read our Day 4 coverage here and watch this video.

In-depth: Updates on the Davos themes

Catch-up on the key quotes from sessions across all five themes of the Annual Meeting here.

Articles

Geopolitics, conflict and diplomacy at Davos 2025. Here's what to know

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Jobs, health and inclusion at Davos 2025

Podcasts from the mountain

We've been podcasting all week from Davos:

The podcasts to listen to during Davos 2025

  • Radio Davos: The weekly show looking at the world's biggest challenges and how we can tackle them. Subscribe on any app via this link.
  • Meet the Leader: Big decision makers share the lessons they have learned on the way up, and the habits they would not be without. Subscribe.
  • And keep an eye on Agenda Dialogues where you can catch the audio from some of the biggest and best sessions from Davos 2025. Subscribe.

More on Forum Stories

In the past few weeks, we've published a number of articles and reports on the biggest issues up for discussion this year at Davos. Here's a snapshot, but you can see more on our Forum Stories page.

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Contents
Sessions to watch todayConversations in the corridorsThings you might have missedIn-depth: Updates on the Davos themesPodcasts from the mountainMore on Forum Stories

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