IMF Chief Says #MeToo, While Imperfect, Showed Extent of Problem

(Bloomberg) -- The many allegations of sexual misconduct that have emerged from the #MeToo movement have exposed the magnitude of the problem, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said.

“I’m sure that there are occasionally wrong allegations here and there. You can’t expect a system to be perfect,” the IMF’s managing director told the World Government Summit in Dubai on Sunday. “But we know there were lots of true allegations that didn’t come through, that didn’t get picked up by society.

“We need to pay attention to the 80 percent which are the true allegations,” she said.

Lagarde spoke a day after President Donald Trump, who himself has been accused by multiple women of abusive behavior, tweeted that “a mere allegation” could lead to “lives being shattered.”

Two White House staffers resigned over the past week after their former wives described physically violent marriages. Both they and Trump have denied abusing women.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zainab Fattah in Dubai at zfattah@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Steve Geimann

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