With inflation rising sharply, and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, the United States is facing an increased risk of a downturn, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Friday.
But any temporary pain caused by a recession would be “a necessary price to pay” to defeat damaging inflation, she said.
The Washington-based crisis lender again slashed its US growth forecast to 2.9 per cent, from the 3.7 per cent forecast in April, which was cut from the rate predicted at the start of the year.
The world’s largest economy rebounded strongly from the pandemic downturn, but that has come with “unwelcome side effects” of rising prices, Georgieva said.
While the IMF is confident the Fed’s rate hikes will bring down inflation, “We are conscious that there is a narrowing path to avoiding a recession,” she said in a statement. The Fed last week implemented the biggest increase in its benchmark lending rate in nearly 30 years, as part of its aggressive effort to quell inflation that is at a four-decade high and squeezing American families struggling with rising prices for gasoline, food and housing.
The US economy already was seeing strong demand clashing with supply snarls due to pandemic lockdowns in China and elsewhere, when Russia invaded Ukraine, which has intensified the inflationary pressures.
For 2023, growth is expected to slow to 1.7 per cent, but “narrowly avoid” a recession, according to the annual review of the US economy, known as the Article IV consultation.
