IMF warns top central banks of zero lower bound trap.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that interest rates should eventually fall back to pre-pandemic levels, with advanced economies again within sight of the "zero lower bound" and developing countries seeing rates in steady decline. The IMF concluded that the "natural" rates of interest, an anchor for monetary policy that neither stimulates nor discourages economic activity, "will remain low in advanced economies or decline further in emerging markets." This means less fiscal pressure as governments will be able to borrow more cheaply, but also means central banks, particularly in developed countries, may again have to rely on bond buying and other strategies once some future downturn prompts them to cut policy interest rates to zero.