IMF chief warns the US it cannot grow its way out of its $40 trillion debt mountain

From the Newshound archive · first published 14 October 2026.

Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF's managing director, told reporters at the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok that the US must take active fiscal steps to bring its debt under control — growth alone will not do it. She acknowledged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accepts the federal deficit has grown too high, but said relying on economic expansion would not deliver adjustments fast enough. Rising debt levels and inflation, partly driven by high energy costs from the Iran war, have pushed interest rates to multi-decade highs.

Georgieva was blunt: 'There is no magic — you have to go in a direction of tightening, bringing deficit down.'