By Paul Wiseman, Associated Press Economics writer
Washington (AP) – The leader of the International Monetary Fund urged countries to move “quickly” to resolve commercial disputes that threaten global economic growth.
IMF’s general manager Kristalina Georgieva said that unpredictability arising from the aggressive campaign of President Donald Trump’s taxes on foreign imports forces companies to delay investments and consumers to retain expenses.
“Uncertainty is bad for business,” she told journalists on Thursday during a briefing during the IMF spring meetings and her sister-in-law agency, the World Bank.
Georgieva’s comments occurred two days after the IMF has lowered the prospects for global economic growth this year. The 191-country loan organization, which aims to promote global growth, financial stability and to reduce poverty, has also greatly reduced its forecasts for the United States. He indicated that the chances that the largest economy in the world falls into the recession increased by 25%, to around 40%.
Georgieva warned that the economic benefits of commercial conflicts would be most of the poor countries, which do not have the money to compensate for damage.
Since the return of the White House in January, Trump has aggressively imposed prices on American trade partners. Among other things, he slapped 145% of import taxes on China and 10% on almost all countries of the world, which increases American prices at levels that we do not see during the century. But he has changed several times in American policy – suspend or suddenly modify the prices – and left the companies confused with what he tries to accomplish and what his end game could be.
Trump’s prices – a clear reversal of the decades of American policy in favor of free trade – and the resulting uncertainty has caused a long -standing rout on the financial markets. But the actions joined Wednesday after the Trump administration reported that it was open to reducing massive prices on China. “There is an opportunity for a big deal here,” the American Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
