World economy not doing as badly as feared, IMF chief says
Kristalina Georgieva warns global resilience has not been ‘fully tested’, as the full effect of US tariffs is ‘still to unfold’
The global economy was doing better than expected, even as it faced prolonged uncertainty and underwhelming medium-term growth prospects, the head of the IMF said on Wednesday.
The world economy was doing “better than feared, but worse than we need,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters in Washington.
She added that the Fund now expected global growth to slow “only slightly this year and next”, propped up by better-than-expected conditions in the United States, and among some other advanced, emerging market and developing countries.
Georgieva’s remarks came ahead of next week’s gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors at the World Bank and the IMF in Washington.
Trade is once again likely to dominate the agenda at the annual meetings, following US President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to unleash sweeping tariffs against many trading partners.