The Economy Forum was launched as the Emerging Economies Forum in 2008. Since then it has expanded its remit to discuss economic issues more widely, with a particular focus on the problems with growth today.

The Forum seeks to challenge what are increasingly naturalised accounts of the economy: that the productive side of the economy is not susceptible to fundamental change; and that the major economic problems today are best viewed from the perspective of consumption.

Issues it explores include the concept of there being natural limits to economic growth, demographic challenges, sustainability, the need for innovation, the relationship of finance to the real economy, the role of the state, behavioural economics, the emerging economies, among many more.

The Battle of Ideas is a key event in the Forum calendar and meetings in the run up to the festival focus on the themes that will be debated there.

Angus Kennedy, IOI Economy Forum