Georgieva said she had to work “double” to be on par with her male colleagues.
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The International Monetary Fund has yet to see enough banks pulling back on lending that could prompt the US Federal Reserve to change course with its rate hike cycle.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told CNBC’s Karen Tso on Saturday in Dubrovnik, Croatia: “We haven’t seen a significant slowdown in lending. There’s been some, but not the size, of that. could lead to the Fed backing down.”
The Federal Reserve in a May bank report warn that lenders are worried about the conditions ahead, because Trouble at mid-sized financial institutions in the US causing banks to tighten lending standards for households and businesses.
Fed lending officials added that they expect problems to continue next year due to lower growth forecasts and concerns about reduced capital outflow and risk tolerance.
Georgieva told CNBC: “I can’t stress enough that we’re in a particularly uncertain environment. So keep an eye on trends and be nimble and adjust. — if trends change.”
The IMF’s comments on the pace of global lending decline come after Chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told CNBC in April that banks are now in a “more precarious situation” that could put the international organization’s world growth forecast at 2.8 percent at risk this year.
The majority of major central banks globally, including the US Federal Reserve, have tightened their monetary policy aggressively to tame soaring inflation. Meanwhile, the The world’s global debt has grown to near a record high of $305 trillion, according to the Institute of International Finance. The IIF said in its May report that high levels of debt and interest rates have led to further concerns about leverage in the financial system.
‘A little more’
Since the IMF has yet to see a significant slowdown in lending that could cause the Fed to reverse its course, Georgieva said that combined with a US steady employment report on Friday, that it could rise further.
“The pressure that comes from rising incomes and a very, very low unemployment rate means the Fed will have to continue to act and perhaps in our view they may need to,” she said. have to do a little more.”
She predicts the US unemployment rate will exceed 4%, to 4.5%, as the Fed raises interest rates more after the rate rose to 3.7% in May, marking the highest level. as of October 2022.
About the US government Debt ceiling bill passed was signed by President Joe Biden over the weekend, she said: “what was agreed, in context [that] it was agreed, broadly speaking, to be a good outcome.”
“The problem is that the repeated debate around the debt ceiling is, in our view, not very helpful. There is space to rethink how to deal with this,” she added.
— Jeff Cox of CNBC, Elliot Smith contributed to this report
