BANGKOK — The head of the International Monetary Fund has urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to trim the deficit, warning that his plan to lean on growth to tame U.S. Government debt isn't sufficient.
"Growth of course helps, but it cannot deliver fast enough the necessary adjustments," Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said at a panel Wednesday at the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok. "Some [fiscal] measures would be necessary."
Georgieva said Bessent recognizes that federal deficits and overall debt have grown "too high," and that measures to improve the budget balance and reduce the debt are necessary. But "the authorities very much rely on strong growth in the United States" to bring them down, she said.
Bessent and Trump administration officials have touted resilient economic growth, driven by the artificial-intelligence build-out, reshoring manufacturing and tax cuts for consumers, as crucial tools to improve the U.S. fiscal posture.
"With 3% growth, we grow our way out of this," Bessent said last month. He has argued sustained growth above 3%, combined with spending restraint, could lower the debt ratio and bend the debt-to-GDP curve.