Britain has been told that its economy remains too reliant on consumer spending to make meaningful growth, according to the IMF.
Its director has urged the UK to push harder on exports and business investments to ensure the economy is “three engines powered”.
While the IMF believes the UK will have growth this year of 2.9%, making it the fastest growing major economy. It recognised that this would be “significant”.
But it felt that the economy would benefit from greater balance with raised business investment and export growth.
Concerning the eurozone, Ms Lagarde also said that a full-scale money printing programme or the introduction of negative interest rates was inevitable and just a “question of timing”.
It is not the first time the IMF has called for the introduction of quantitative easing in the euro region.
It is, however, the European Central Bank which calls the shots over interest rates and not the IMF.
