IMF's Lagarde: IMF likely to downgrade German growth outlook – Die Zeit

In an interview with the German weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde urged the German government to step up investments while at the same time cautioning over further downgrade to the German growth outlook by the fund.

It’s worth noting that the IMF already slashed the German growth outlook from 1.9% to 1.3% for 2019 last month.

Key Quotes:

"The German state could do some meaningful things with more money, for example, invest in the modernization of public infrastructure or expand childcare, which would be the projects that strengthen the growth forces and Germany should tackle." 

 IMF was "likely to further downgrade its growth forecast for Germany."

"Central banks typically lower interest rates by five percentage points to shore up the economy in the event of a looming recession, but that's not the case if the interest rate is one, two, or, as in the case of the Eurozone, zero. That means governments have to do more."