IMF Chief Urges Fed to Consider Further Action Despite Steady Lending Growth

The International Monetary Fund's Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, has said that there is no significant slowdown in lending that would cause the US Federal Reserve to change course with its rate-hiking cycle. Georgieva also projected the US unemployment rate to go beyond 4%, up to 4.5%, from more rate hikes by the Fed after the rate rose to 3.7% in May, marking the highest since October 2022. The IMF's commentary on the pace of a slowdown in global lending comes after its Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told CNBC in April that banks are now situated in a "more precarious situation" that would pose a risk to the international organization's world growth forecast of 2.8% for this year.