The Guardian view on the IMF: practise what you preach | Editorial

The IMF says it wants growth in the post-recession world to be more inclusive. Why does it advocate austerity for crisis-hit economies?

It is now 10 years since the global economy was convulsed by the most serious crisis since the 1930s, and there is a sense of deja vu as finance ministers and central bank governors gather in Washington for this week's spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund. As was the case before 2008, growth looks brittle. Debt levels in the west, according to the IMF's latest fiscal monitor, have not been higher than they are today since the second world war. In emerging markets, they are at levels typically associated with the sort of problems that befell Latin America in the 1980s.

In another echo of a decade ago, the US is once again becoming the global consumer of last resort. The generalised upswing in the global economy is in no small part due to the world's biggest economy sucking in imports. Global imbalances between countries running surpluses and those running deficits - a warning sign of trouble ahead in the mid-2000s - are back. Donald Trump's fiscal policy is certain to make the global imbalances worse. The IMF thinks the extra demand stimulated by the president's package of tax cuts and extra spending will suck in imports and boost an already high US current account deficit by $150bn in 2019.

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