The IMF is too gloomy in its outlook for US growth and oversteps its mandate in calling for Washington to reshape the American economy, a US official said on Monday.[WASHINGTON] The IMF is too gloomy in its outlook for US growth and oversteps its mandate in calling for Washington to reshape the American economy, a US official said on Monday.
In its annual review of the US economy, the fund said Washington has the financial firepower to fix the health care system, better support poor families with improved aid programmes and tax credits, and improve jobless benefits to include self-employed workers. Mark Rosen, US representative to the fund's board, said he agrees the government has ample resources available to deal with the pandemic."Our authorities disagree, however, that they should use available fiscal space to 'broadly remake' the US economy."
He faulted the IMF for veering into social issues, saying"this dynamic detracts from the usefulness and impact of the report." "Economies are neither made nor remade but emerge from millions of citizens' independent decisions, and dirigisme runs contrary to the spirit of free enterprise that undergirds the US economy," he said in a statement included in the full report.