We should all be aware that interest rates will remain high for a long time, said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, speaking at an investment conference in Riyadh, reports 24Chasa.bg, as quoted by Rador Radio Romania.

“We are not happy with the fact that they had to be quickly raised from zero to five or more percent, but the situation is such that we need to tighten our belts,” Kristalina Georgieva stressed.

According to the head of the IMF, for the past 20 years the world has lived with interest rates from the “world of fantasy”.

“We would like to see the normalization of monetary policy, but it will happen gradually. “I am troubled by the fact that we live in a world where crises are becoming more frequent and more destructive,” Georgieva said. “What is happening now (in Israel and Gaza – no) will not be the last shock.”

“We are concerned about what is happening, the loss of human lives, but also the loss of economic activity,” the head of the IMF said. The worst thing is that this is happening in a period of slowing economic activity, high interest rates and expensive servicing of the public debt. And countries close to the conflict, such as Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, are already feeling its consequences. Tourists here are becoming less and less because security is the killer of tourism.

“That’s why we at the Fund do not delay and act quickly when it comes to assistance and debt restructuring,” Kristalina Georgieva said. The good news is that monetary tightening is working and inflation is falling. The bad news is that this is not happening as quickly as we would like. However, interest rates are not suffocating yet, they only make life more difficult, sums up the IMF director general.