Kristalina Georgieva calls for trade policy settlement and says tariff wars have ‘spiked uncertainty off the charts’
IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva has urged the US to strike trade deals urgently to limit the damage to the global economy from Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
Speaking at a press conference at the IMF’s spring meetings in Washington, Georgieva declined to criticise the US administration directly; but warned that what she called “major trade policy shifts” had “spiked uncertainty off the charts”.
“A trade policy settlement among the main players is essential, and we are urging them to do it swiftly, because uncertainty is very costly,” she said.
“I cannot stress this strongly enough: without certainty, businesses do not invest, households prefer to save rather than to spend – and this further weakens prospects for already weakened growth.”
Financial markets were buoyed earlier this week by signs of softening in Trump’s stance on trade, with the president suggesting he believed a deal with China was possible, that could result in significantly lower tariffs than the current 145%.
