The paper focuses on the development of the global economy in the context of sustainable development as a key imperative of contemporary macroeconomics. The analysis is combined with a look at classic macroeconomic issues such as economic growth, inflation, unemployment, and the balance of payments in foreign trade. An added value of the paper is that it looks at the problem from the perspective of various schools of thought in contemporary macroeconomics. The authors seek to validate the hypothesis that sustainable development is a powerful paradigm for the development of modern economies and that various macroeconomic trends make it possible to adapt this paradigm to the needs of economies at different stages of development.