By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday took issue with cuts in global growth forecasts and higher inflation projections announced by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as a result of the war in the Middle East, saying the institutions had probably “overreacted.”
“I think that they probably overreacted, but we’ll see,” Bessent told reporters, noting that some countries in Europe and Asia were adopting consumer or industrial subsidies to deal with supply disruptions that could lead to higher persistent inflation there.
However, he said he was confident that the U.S. would cycle through higher prices very quickly, unlike countries that were implementing subsidies that could increase borrowings or lengthen the duration of inflationary impacts.
The IMF on Tuesday cut its growth outlook due to war-driven energy price spikes, offering a range of scenarios that all include lower growth and higher inflation. Absent the conflict, the IMF said it would have upgraded its growth outlook by 0.1 percentage point to 3.4%.
Despite his dismissive comments on the institutions’ forecasts, Bessent said the leaders of the IMF and World Bank had heard his call last year for both institutions to get back to their core missions of macroeconomic stability and development, and move away from issues such as climate change.
Speaking at an event hosted by the global banking trade group, the Institute of International Finance, and to reporters afterwards, Bessent said he thought both institutions were now more clearly aligned with U.S. priorities and interests.
He lauded the World Bank’s decision to end a ban on nuclear power projects, and said the IMF had been working closely with Treasury on Argentina and bringing Venezuela back into the global financial system.
He did repeat his call for the IMF to sell its golf course in a Maryland suburb of Washington.
“We’re in close touch,” Bessent said, noting that his former chief of staff, Dan Katz, was now the No. 2 official at the IMF.
“I think they understand the U.S. point of view, and I think they want to be good partners. I think that there was some inertia and some … weeding out to do of past programs, but I think we are very aligned now,” he told reporters.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Andrea Ricci )
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