Corporate Amundi shares key ideas from the 2024 edition of the Amundi World Investment Forum

Valérie Baudson

Member of Executive Committee of Crédit Agricole S.A., Chief Executive Officer of Amundi

the economic outlook is improving”, with global GDP growth around 3% in 2024 and in 2025, whilst “history and geopolitics are back in the spotlight” and “energy transition and technological innovations at the heart of geopolitical tensions as they shape the ability of nations to maintain a position or gain power.

a big game is being played between democracies and authoritarian regimes. What is happening in Ukraine will define the future of democracy.” She urged Europe and NATO to offer “larger perspectives” and reminded the audience that “geopolitics is not the only threat humanity is facing, there is also climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

markets are going to put upward pressure on interest rates in the coming years

the large current account deficits from China and the rest of Asia leading to a large flow of capital towards Europe and the United States, the stagnation of investment due to very few opportunities in the 2010s and thirdly, government bonds were seen as very safe with not much of an inflation risk. Today, all three factors have reverted.

the three fastest-growing economies of the next few years will be in Asia: China, India and Indonesia. She discussed “the need for convergence” in the region, “China has room to converge with other richer countries, India also has a huge amount of room to converge with China.

even in the most difficult circumstances, even when things are very dark, you must maintain hope. There are still signs of hope in this world economy that we should build on, like Mandela said, “build for the future".

a big game is being played between democracies and authoritarian regimes. What is happening in Ukraine will define the future of democracy.” She urged Europe and NATO to offer “larger perspectives” and reminded the audience that “geopolitics is not the only threat humanity is facing, there is also climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

we are now embarking on green power which is being adopted in a significant way.

on one hand, people think AI is probably the dream of tomorrow, that will change lives […], and especially for companies, their productivity and profitability. At the same time, we see fear of layouts and job replacement but most importantly, we need to address the implications regarding democracy with the use of deepfakes.

the key decision for CEOs is going to be how to use AI with the workers, with the human resources. Whether you view workers as a cost to be cut or as an important resource that's going to contribute to the success of your company

AI is not protecting workers enough. The owners of technologies, the developers, the scientists and engineers have a responsibility to provide users with the right information, they must protect yet encourage innovation.

There is a huge opportunity to turn the European savers into future European investors, and if AI can help with that, it will help to improve society

the key question is how to ride the wave of demographic transformations […] India will soon have the largest consumer market in the world due to its younger population, even though China will have the largest economy.