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IMF’s Lipton Says Action Needed Now to Mitigate Next Downturn

IMF’s Lipton Says Action Needed Now to Mitigate Next Downturn

(Bloomberg) -- Leaders of the world’s economies need to work together now to keep the next economic downturn from being a severe one, according to IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton.

Lipton said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua and Tom Keene that there will be another global slowdown though the timing is difficult to know.

“In many respects we may not have the strength to respond that we had before,” the International Monetary Fund official said. “It’s really important, as we’ve been saying at the IMF, to fix the roof while the sun is shining, to try to put off that downturn and make sure it’s not a severe one.”

He urged the IMF members, both advanced economies and developing countries, to work together to overcome global economic risks.

“It’s very hard to know exactly when the downturn will come and what will be the precipitating cause,” Lipton said in the interview from London on Tuesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Costelloe in Rome at kcostelloe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Dan Liefgreen, Kevin Costelloe

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