WASHINGTON, Oct 17 — Governments in almost all economies face pressing fiscal challenges, with high debt levels, higher interest rates and growing demands for public spending, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official has said.
“It’s a reality that debt is high. The debt-to-GDP ratio is increasing for the world economy. We have higher interest rates than a few years ago, and there are a lot of demand for more spending,” Rodrigo Valdes, director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF, told Xinhua in a recent interview in Washington D.C., ahead of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group, being held in Bangkok, Thailand.
“All those things together make us think that the challenge for fiscal policy is very important,” Valdes said.
