IMF chief warns against tariff uncertainty

The heightened uncertainty stemming from escalating trade tensions is costly, and the more it is removed, the better, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday.

Georgieva, speaking at a "curtain-raiser" event in Washington ahead of next week's IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, noted that the world economy's resilience is being tested "by the reboot of the global trading system" that threatens to cause turbulence in financial markets.

Georgieva said putting together all the recent tariff increases, pauses, escalations and exemptions, it seems clear that the United States' effective tariff rate has jumped to levels last seen generations ago. Other countries have responded.