The president of the World Bank criticized on Wednesday the acquisition by Microsoft of Activision Blizzard studios for nearly 69 billion dollars, while poor countries are struggling to restructure their debt and feed their populations.
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"
I was struck by Microsoft's investment in a video game company
," David Malpass said during a virtual global economics discussion hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank. . "
We have to ask (...) if this is the best way to allocate capital
", he added, noting that "a
huge amount of financial flow goes to the bond market and basically, it
is a very small part of the world that has access to bond financing
”.
To put his remarks into perspective, he took the example of IDA, the institution of the World Bank group which grants loans to the 74 poorest countries in the world.
It has been endowed with $93 billion over three years, $23.5 billion of which comes from donors in 48 high- and middle-income countries.
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“
There should be more money and growth in developing countries, and we have the reverse
,” David Malpass also said.
