IMF Chief: Get Ready for 'Tougher' Year Than Last

Thankful to have kicked 2022 to the curb? According to the head of the International Monetary Fund, we haven't yet escaped last year's economic woes, which will continue to play out in significant ways around the globe. "We expect one-third of the world economy to be in recession" in 2023, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said in a Sunday interview on CBS' Face the Nation, per CNN Business.

Georgieva added that the coming year will be "tougher" than the last, amid high interest rates, rising prices, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and China's struggles with COVID, among other factors set to play a part in the slowing economies of the US, the European Union, and China. She predicts at least half of the EU will end up in a recession, with the IMF estimating global growth of 2.7% for the year, down from 3.2% in 2022. Katrina Ell, an economist at Moody's Analytics, concurs with that overall picture, telling the BBC that Europe will definitely find itself in recession territory, while "the US is teetering on the verge."

"Even countries that are not in recession, it [will] feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people," Georgieva said during her interview. Still, she offered a glimmer of hope, calling the US economy in particular "remarkably resilient." She noted that remedial steps the US has taken, including the recent infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act, will hopefully be not only "good for the US," but "good for the world." She added, "If that resilience of the labor market in the US holds, the US would help the world to get through a very difficult year." (More recession stories.)