Christine Lagarde has called on policymakers to pass a range of economic reforms to avoid the trap of years of lacklustre growth — a trap which the International Monetary Fund’s managing director said risked stoking frustrations with the global economic and political establishment.
Ms Lagarde’s call to action comes ahead of what is widely anticipated to be the lowering of the IMF’s growth forecasts for the global economy next week at its spring meetings in Washington. Economists at the fund are increasingly pessimistic about growth particularly in emerging economies. They are also wary of new shocks that might emanate from large developing economies such Brazil, China and Russia.
In January the IMF’s forecast for global growth this year was 3.4 per cent.