Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said on Tuesday that she hoped the global economy would not have to wait until the eleventh hour for a solution to the US debt ceiling.
Negotiators from the White House and the Republican Congress are trying to resolve a months-long impasse over increasing the US government’s $31.4 trillion debt limit, leaving the country at risk of default in just nine days.
A US default would hurt the US and global economies, Georgieva told a news conference in London, providing a strong incentive for negotiators to reach an agreement.
“We have seen in the past that discussions about the debt ceiling in the United States were always very tense, but they always led to solutions,” she said.
“Let’s see how far this gets pushed into the eleventh hour. Hopefully we won’t have to wait that long.”
Georgieva was in London to present the International Monetary Fund’s annual assessment of the UK economy. The International Monetary Fund now expects the British economy to avoid recession, but will continue to suffer from high inflation and slow growth in the near term.
