MTS Help Center

Two of the world’s most influential economic leaders have warned that there are troubling developments arising from increased trade barriers and tariffs.

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) and Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the global trade dispute between the U.S. and China as well as a threatened dispute with Europe and other industrial nations could cause headwinds for all and could get worse.

Speaking at the 8th ECB conference focused on central, eastern and south-eastern European (CESEE) countries on Wednesday, the IMF’s Lagarde said “we meet at a moment when support for global cooperation and multilateral solutions is waning.”

“Global growth has been subdued for more than six years and the largest economies in the world are putting up, or threatening to put up, new trade barriers. And this might be the beginning of something else, which might affect us all in a more broad way, ” she said.

“These troubling developments will create headwinds for all, but certainly for the CESEE growth model, a model that has relied on openness and integration,” she warned.