Lagarde wants more global recovery work

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde Lagarde calls for further monetary easing in Europe. AFP photo

International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde has warned that more efforts were needed to get the global economy back on track.

“We stopped the collapse, we should avoid the relapse, and it’s not time to relax,” Lagarde said at a news conference on Jan. 17 at the multilateral institution’s Washington headquarters.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done.” The IMF managing director, while pointing to signs of economic improvement, noted deterioration on the jobs front, which she called “critical from an economic point of view but also from a social point of view.” “We need growth for jobs and jobs for growth,” she said.

The eurozone, the center of the public debt crisis dragging down global growth, and where the IMF together with the European Union has rescued Greece, Ireland and Portugal, has to do more to address its challenges, she said. Financial firewalls erected by the European Union and the European Central Bank, such as the European Stability Mechanism rescue fund and ECB bond purchases, “have not proven operational.” “Progress needs to be made on the banking union,” she added.

As for the United States, the IMF chief called on bitterly divided politicians to reach a compromise on the nation’s borrowing limit and deficit-reduction plans.