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IMF Warns Wealthy Nations on Debt

   VOA News 21 March 2010
   Deputy  Managing  Director  of  the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
   John Lipsky, 2 Oct 2009

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

   Deputy  Managing  Director  of  the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
   John Lipsky, 2 Oct 2009

   A  top  official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says wealthy
   countries  will  need  to  start  cutting  spending and deal with huge
   national debts next year.
   John  Lipsky, the first deputy managing director of the IMF, said in a
   speech  in  China Sunday that stimulus spending remains appropriate in
   2010  to  push  the  global  economic  recovery.  But he says wealthy
   nations  must  cut  spending,  increase  taxes and reform pensions and
   health entitlements to reduce debt in 2011.
   Lipsky says cutting stimulus measures put in place during the economic
   crisis  will  not be enough, because the stimulus programs account for
   only about one percent of rich countries' gross domestic products.
   He  estimated  that  government debt will be higher than annual GDP in
   most  advanced  economies by 2014, the highest debt-to-GDP ratio since
   the years after World War II.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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