Wednesday, 2nd April 2025

UK should seek longer Brexit transition amid Covid-19 crisis, says IMF chief

Thursday, 16th April 2020

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2020 file photo, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, attends a session on the first day of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany. Georgieva said Friday, March 27, it is clear that the global economy has now entered a recession that could be as bad or worse than the 2009 downturn. She said the 189-nation lending agency was forecasting a recovery in 2021, saying it could be a “sizable rebound.” But she said this would only occur if nations succeed in containing the coronavirus and limiting the economic damage(AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)

Britain should ask for an expansion to its post-Brexit transition period to ease uncertainty at a time when the world economy is being hammered by the coronavirus pandemic, the head of the International Monetary Fund said.

“It is tough as it is. Let’s not make it any tougher,” Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, told BBC radio in comments broadcast on Thursday.

“My advice would be to seek ways in which this element of uncertainty is reduced in the interests of everybody, of the UK, of the EU, the whole world.”