‘Action please’ IMF chief Lagarde’s message to world economic leaders

International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde has strongly called on Thursday for action around the world to revive growth and tackle inequality, choosing particularly Canada, Germany, and South Korea to provide stimulus.

“Growth remains too low, for too long, benefitting too few. What is key now is action, so my message to the members of the IMF tomorrow will be, ‘Action, please,'” Lagarde said during a press conference held in Washington at the opening of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank’s annual meetings.

“My hope at the end of the annual meeting is that each finance minister, each governor of a central bank, will go back home thinking, ‘What can I do in order to propel that growth which is currently too low, for too long benefiting too few?'” Lagarde said.

Lagarde singled out three leading economies as examples of states that have the financial wherewithal to spend more to accelerate growth.

“We believe that some countries have fiscal space. Well if so, they should use it,” she said. “We are certainly including in that category countries like Canada, like Germany, like Korea.”

Leave a comment