IMF highlights challenges for global response to economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has underlined difficulties in coordinating a global response to surging inflation and recessionary fears. Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, the IMF's director for strategy, policy, and review, spoke to the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors after their meeting ended in Bali, Indonesia. She identified the surging food and energy prices, slowing capital flows to emerging markets, the ongoing pandemic, and a slowdown in China as becoming more challenging for policymakers. Pazarbasioglu said the IMF will cut its global economic growth outlook "substantially" in its next update, as finance chiefs grapple with a shrinking list of options to address the worsening risks. The IMF already downgraded its outlook for the global expansion this year to 3.6%, from 4.4% before the war in Ukraine, in its April report.