Talal Rafi
Fellow
Talal Rafi is an Economist and an Expert Member of the World Economic Forum. He is a Regular Columnist for the International Monetary Fund and he is a Visiting Lecturer at the Centre for Banking Studies, Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Talal was a member of the Deloitte Global Economist Network and he was a member of Deloitte’s Global ESG Operations team.
Talal Co-Chairs the Global Plastic Innovation Network action group of the World Economic Forum and he is a World Bank Youth Climate Ambassador. He was on the Selection Committee of the Asian Development Bank #DigitalAgainstCovid-19 Innovation Series and he was on a team of experts at Chatham House London on formulating recommendations on gender equality post-Covid. He has worked for USAID and World Bank projects on entrepreneurship development.
Talal serves as an Independent Non Executive Director on the board of one of Sri Lanka’s largest asset management firms and serves on the board of Sri Lanka’s state foreign policy think tank, The Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute. He serves on an Advisory Committee at the Export Development Board of Sri Lanka and is on the Enterprise Operations Committee at Moratuwa University. He is also a Consultant at the Seed Program of Stanford University.
He has given talks globally including at the NASDAQ Center, S&P Global and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and contributes regularly in thought leadership for the Davos Agenda. He has been quoted by publications such as Nikkei Asia and Fortune Magazine. His work has been published by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank, World Economic Forum, Chatham House London, UNFCCC, London School of Economics and Forbes.
Selected publications
“Effects of Innovation on Fiscal Policies and Economic Growth”. International Monetary Fund. (voted the 7th most popular IMF PFM article for 2022)
“Five ways in which Green Policies drive Economic Growth”. London School of Economics (co-authored with Erik Solheim -Former ED of UNEP)
“Sri Lanka can solve its economic crisis – Here’s how.” Chatham House London (co-authored with former Investment Minister of Sri Lanka Kabir Hashim)
“4 Ways a Greener Economy can help debt ridden countries”. World Economic Forum (co-authored with Erik Solheim)
“How to achieve gender parity in boardrooms”. World Bank (co-authored with World Bank Senior Economist Sibel Kulaksiz)
Areas of expertise
- Macroeconomics
- Development Economics
- Sustainability
- Entrepreneurship