‘A foot out in the cold’: leaders huddle at IMF as icy economic winds blow

Worries over private credit, tax and spend, skittish bond markets and tariff chaos dominate meeting in Washington

The security blanket is covering us, but maybe we have a foot out in the cold." That was the typically colourful warning from the International Monetary Fund's managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, this week to its gathering of finance ministers in Washington.

At its spring meetings in April, the IMF said the erratic trade policies emanating from the White House, half a mile away from its glass and steel HQ, amounted to a major negative shock" for the global economy.