International Monetary Fund

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...

February 3, 2026 6:27 PM

World Government Summit: IMF’s Georgieva says global economy resilient

The World Government Summit 2026 has opened in Dubai under the theme Shaping Future Governments, bringing together global leaders, policymakers and business executives to examine how innovation, sustainability and technology are reshaping public policy. Discussions at the summit are focused on strengthening government policies and boosting international cooperation to tackle economic, social and technological challenges. The programme includes more than 445 sessions featuring over 450 global fi...

January 23, 2026 10:22 PM

Lebanon PM says IMF wants rescue plan changes as crisis deepens

The International Monetary Fund has demanded amendments to a draft rescue law aimed at hauling Lebanon out of its worst financial crisis on record and giving depositors access to savings frozen for six years, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said. The "financial gap" law is part of a series of reform measures required by the IMF in order to access its funding and aims to allocate the losses from Lebanon's 2019 crash between the state, the central bank, commercial banks and depositors. Salam told Reu...