‘BUCKLE UP’

IMF Chief Warns High Interest Rates Are Here to Stay

Kristalina Georgieva added that the Israel-Hamas war would hurt prospects for a global recovery.

Tell us something we don’t know. The head of the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday that the global economy will likely stay stuck in the doldrums for the foreseeable future and that “everybody” should “buckle up.” Kristalina Georgieva told the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh that inflation “is not going down fast enough”, adding: “So now... our call to everybody is: buckle up. Make sure that you understand [higher] interest rates are here to stay for longer.” In a relentlessly downbeat message, she said high interest rates would throw “more cold water on growth.” Georgieva said the “tragic” conflict in Israel would hurt prospects for global recovery, saying the war was “terrible for the economic prospects for [countries at] the epicentre of the war” and would have a “negative impact on neighbours through trade channels, tourism channels, cost of insurance and a more jittery world [with] more anxiety in the world.”