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IMF

DSK was ‘excellent’ IMF head: Lagarde

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was an "excellent" IMF director, his new successor Christine Lagarde said Sunday, but added that the international institution will need time to heal from the recent scandal that forced his resignation.

Published: 11 July 2011 10:31 CEST

“Some people are very hurt. Other people feel betrayed. It’s a very strange chemistry of frustration, irritation, sometimes anger, sometimes very deep sadness as well,” Lagarde told ABC television’s “This Week” program.

Lagarde said that Strauss-Kahn “has done an excellent job as managing director” but added that there are “wounds” at the International Monetary Fund following the scandal that forced him out of his job.

Lagarde, the former French finance minister, took over as managing director of the International Monetary Fund on July 5, following the May resignation of Strauss-Kahn, who is fighting charges of sexual assault.

The criminal case against the prominent French politician, who was once seen as a serious contender for the presidency, suffered a potentially fatal blow last week when prosecutors cast doubt on the credibility of the Guinean-born hotel maid who accused him of sexually assaulting and attempting to rape her on May 14th.

Prosecutors have said the maid lied in sworn testimony in the case, and has given false information on tax and asylum application forms, including information about an alleged gang rape in Guinea.

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ECONOMY

Italy’s economic policies will hit the poor hardest: IMF

Economic policies implemented by the populist government in Rome leave Italy's economy vulnerable to recession, with the poorest likely to suffer the most, the IMF warned.

Published: 7 February 2019 09:45 CET
Italy's economic policies will hit the poor hardest: IMF
Italy's economic policies could lead to recession, the IMF said. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

“The authorities' policies could leave Italy vulnerable to a renewed loss of market confidence,” an International Monetary Fund annual report on the country said yesterday.

“Italy could then be forced into a notable fiscal contraction, pushing a weakening economy into a recession. The burden would fall disproportionately on the vulnerable,” the IMF added.

The Italian economy, the eurozone's third largest, fell into a technical recession at the end of 2018.

The fund expects the Italian economy to grow by no more than 0.6 percent this year, well below the government's own estimate of 1.0 percent.

The European Commission is tipped to lower its Italian growth forecast on Thursday, and slower growth could spell trouble for Italy, where around 20 percent of national output is swallowed up each year by payments on the public debt, the second biggest in the eurozone.

Photo: Depositphotos

The IMF report praised the coalition government's “objective to improve economic and social outcomes (as) welcome.”

But it added that the only sustainable way of achieving such goals was through “faster potential growth” that would require structural reforms, “a credible fiscal consolidation” and stronger bank balance sheets.

The coalition government of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the far-right League party was forced to water down its ambitious and costly budget in December to avoid being punished by the EU Commission and financial markets.

The IMF report emphasised Wednesday that Italy “needs to tackle long-standing structural impediments to productivity growth. 

“This includes decentralising the wage bargaining regime, liberalising service markets, and improving the business climate.”

Deputy Prime Minister and M5S leader Luigi Di Maio quickly rejected the IMF report, charging that the Fund “has starved people for decades.”

The IMF, Di Maio claimed, “has no credibility to criticise a measure like the citizenship income programme,” the party's plan to introduce a welfare payment of 780 euros a month for Itay's least well-off.

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