TOKYO, October 7. /TASS/. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies could add up to 0.5 percentage points to annual global GDP growth, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

"IMF research suggests that AI, if done right, could over time deliver up to half a percentage point of extra world growth annually. Just think of it: going from 3 percent to 3Ѕ percent - it will add an economy the size of ASEAN to the world economy over a decade," Georgieva said. She was speaking in Singapore ahead of the IMF and World Bank Autumn Meetings, scheduled for next week in Thailand.

"Global investment-to-GDP in AI will reach and likely exceed the amounts that went into building the railroads, the electricity grid, or the telecommunication network. We estimate AI hardware and related tech products now account for more than one-tenth of world goods trade and rising," the IMF chief said.

According to Georgieva, the surge in AI-related trade reflects an investment boom among nations embedded in its supply chain. The biggest beneficiaries are India, China, and the US, alongside Asian suppliers of microprocessors, memory, chip-making equipment, and robotics.

However, the rest of the world is largely being left out of this boom, which increases "the risk of widening economic inequality across the globe.".