Global finance ministers and central bankers pledged to use all their tools, including fiscal policy, to support demand amid a \u201chighly uncertain\u201d outlook and elevated risks.
\n\u201cThe outlook is highly uncertain and subject to elevated downside risks,\u201d including trade tensions, policy uncertainty and geopolitical risks, according to a communique issued Saturday by the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the steering panel of the IMF\u2019s 189 member countries. \u201cWe will employ all appropriate policy tools, individually and collectively, to mitigate risks, enhance resilience and shore up growth to benefit all.\u201d
\nThe statement was released in Washington, where the IMF and World Bank are holding their annual meetings.
\nAn International Monetary Fund Committee (IMFC) plenary session on October 18.
\n\u201cAvailable fiscal space should be used to support demand as needed,\u201d and monetary policy should aim to keep inflation approaching or stabilising around targets, the communique said.
\nThe downbeat statement caps a week during which the IMF made a fifth-straight cut to its 2019 global growth forecast, projecting the weakest expansion since 2009. The fund\u2019s chief economist, Gita Gopinath, earlier warned that \u201cthere is no room for policy mistakes and an urgent need for policymakers to co-operatively de-escalate trade and geopolitical tensions.\u201d
\n\u201cAll tools can be applied \u2014 monetary policy where there is space for it\u201d as well as fiscal measures and structural reforms when appropriate, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Saturday at a press conference in Washington. Governments need to take these steps to stop or reverse the slowdown, she said.
\nGlobal finance leaders met against a backdrop of slowing growth in the world\u2019s major economies and central banks grappling with limited room to support expansion.
\nIn the US, the Federal Reserve has reversed some of its tightening to insure against downside risks, though consumer spending has largely held up amid weakness in manufacturing and business investment. China said on Friday that economic growth decelerated to the weakest pace since the early 1990s, yet it may be starting to stabilise as fiscal stimulus works its way through the economy.
\nFor the euro area, policymakers don\u2019t expect to go beyond the interest-rate cuts and quantitative easing pushed through by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi in September unless the economy is hit by shocks such as escalating trade tensions or a no-deal Brexit, according to regional officials.
\nWhile the US and China have touted progress toward a trade agreement that leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping would sign next month, the situation remains uncertain and there\u2019s no indication that the nations are preparing to roll back tariffs implemented over the past two years.
\nThe IMFC statement repeated language from the prior statement in April saying that \u201cwe recognise the need to resolve trade tensions.\u201d
\nBut the latest missive added a line saying that a \u201cstrong international trading system with well-enforced rules addressing current and future challenges would support global growth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Global finance ministers and central bankers pledged to use all their tools, including fiscal policy, to support demand amid a \u201chighly uncertain\u201d outlook and elevated risks. \u201cThe outlook is highly uncertain and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[46,48,57,68,76,77,82,86,87,90,96,99,103,107,109,111,113,137,139,146,148,160,174,183,184,201,202,209,222,230,232,233,244,246,249,256,262,263,267,277,279,280,285,288],"class_list":["post-4302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-aramco","tag-athens","tag-baroudi","tag-carbon","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-co2","tag-cyprus","tag-decarbonising","tag-democracy","tag-doha","tag-eastmed","tag-egypt","tag-embargo","tag-emissions","tag-energy","tag-energy-peace","tag-gas","tag-gazprom","tag-greece","tag-greenenergy","tag-international-maritime-disputes","tag-lebanon","tag-maritime-boundaries-east-mediterranean","tag-maritime-disputes","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-pollution","tag-poverty-alleviation","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-rosneft","tag-roudi","tag-russia","tag-saudi","tag-solar","tag-solar-power","tag-straddling-hydrocarbons-reserves","tag-total","tag-trump","tag-turkey","tag-unclos","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}