International Monetary Fund

May 8, 2026 9:51 AM

US trade court rules Trump tariffs illegal, but issues narrow block

A U.S. trade court dealt another blow to President Donald Trump's tariff strategy, ruling that his latest 10% temporary global duties are unjustified under a 1970s trade law, but blocked the levies only for two private importers and the State of Washington. The U.S. Court of International Trade's 2-1 decision leaves the temporary tariffs in place for all other importers while any appeal by the Trump administration plays out. They are expected to expire in July. The court ruled that Trump's imp...

May 5, 2026 10:48 AM

IMF chief Georgieva warns of ‘much worse outcome’ if Middle East war drags into 2027

The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday warned that inflation was already picking up and the global economy could face a "much worse outcome" if the war in the Middle East drags into 2027 and oil prices hit around $125 per barrel. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the continuation of the war meant that the global lender's "reference scenario" assuming a short-lived conflict - which forecast a minor growth slowdown to 3.1% and a minor increase in prices to 4.4% - was ...

April 23, 2026 4:26 PM

Iran war pushing more than 30 million back into poverty, UN development chief says

More than 30 million people will be pushed back into poverty by the impacts of the Iran war including disruptions to fuel and fertiliser supplies just as farmers are planting crops, U.N. development chief Alexander De Croo said on Thursday. Fertiliser shortages - worsened by the blocking of cargo vessels through the Strait of Hormuz - have already lowered agricultural productivity, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) told Reuters. That would likely hit crop yie...

April 16, 2026 4:13 PM

Hopes for deal to end Iran war grow, but nuclear issues unresolved

Optimism grew on Thursday that the Iran war may be near an end, with a key Pakistani mediator having made a breakthrough on "sticky issues", a source said, although Iran warned the fate of its nuclear program had not been resolved. The United States and Pakistan have been talking up the prospects for a deal in the more than six-week war, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying the accord would open the crucial Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas supply flows. Clo...

April 16, 2026 2:03 PM

India resilient despite global shocks, says IMF chief

India’s economy is expected to remain resilient even as global growth slows amid war-driven disruptions, with strong fundamentals helping it outperform most economies, the International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said. “Look at India today. India’s growth is more than two times higher than the average global growth,” Georgieva said at a press briefing during the IMF Spring Meetings on Wednesday (local time). She attributed India’s relative strength t...

April 15, 2026 9:56 PM

Finance ministers, stung by hit to economies, call for full Iran war ceasefire

Finance ministers from almost a dozen countries led by Britain called on the U.S., Israel and Iran to implement their ceasefire in full on Wednesday and said the conflict would weigh on the global economy and markets even if it was resolved soon. A joint statement, signed by the finance ministers from Australia, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Norway, Ireland, Poland and New Zealand as well as Britain, was agreed a day after the International Monetary Fund cut its global economi...

April 15, 2026 10:02 AM

IMF cuts growth outlook, warns world already drifting toward more adverse scenario

The International Monetary Fund cut its growth outlook on Tuesday due to Middle East war-driven energy price spikes but said the world was already drifting toward a more adverse scenario with much-weaker growth as Strait of Hormuz shipping disruptions continue. With massive uncertainty over the Middle East conflict gripping finance officials gathered for IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington, the IMF presented three growth scenarios: weaker, worse and severe, depending on how the war...

April 9, 2026 10:37 PM

IMF’s Georgieva expects war to trigger demand for up to $50 bln in Fund support

International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday said the global lender expected near-term demand for IMF financial support to rise to between $20 billion to $50 billion as a result of spillovers from the war in the Middle East. Georgieva said the now-paused war was testing the global economy, with a 13% cut in the daily flow of the world's oil and a 20% cut in liquefied natural gas triggering a supply shock that had sent energy prices soaring, while disrupting supply chains. ...

March 5, 2026 7:14 PM

India helping democratise AI for developing world: IMF Chief

India is emerging as a key player in the global Artificial Intelligence revolution and is helping to democratise the technology not just for its own citizens but also for developing countries around the world, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said on Thursday. Speaking at the Asia in 2050 Conference in Bangkok, Georgieva said the rapid development of AI has the potential to reshape the global economy, with Asia playing a central role in this transforma...

February 26, 2026 9:38 AM

IMF calls for US fiscal consolidation to bring down ‘too big’ current account deficit

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday called on the United States to reduce its growing fiscal deficit as the best way to bring down current account and trade deficits that it views as too large, sharing some concerns with the Trump administration. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters following the IMF's annual review of U.S. policies that "the conclusion is that the current account deficit is too big, to make it very simple for the audience. And that is recognized b...