IMF calls for countries to economise on energy supplies, and hails UK’s budget deficit improvement – as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva gives a press conference in Washington DC Reeves steps up criticism of Trump’s Iran war, branding it a ‘mistake’ Economic shock from Iran war risks driving up global debt levels, says IMF Iran war escalation could trigger global recession, IMF warns Newsflash: The International Monetary Fund has applauded the UK’s progress in reducing its budget deficit last year. A day after slashing the UK’s growth forecasts, the IMF cited Britain as an example of an major economy which managed to trim its borrowings, after the UK’s deficit fell from 6.1% of GDP in 2024 to 5.4% in 2025. In its latest Fiscal Monitor report, just released at its spring meeting in Washington, the IMF says: double quotation markIn 2025, the headline deficit for advanced economies excluding the United States held broadly steady at 2.4% of GDP. The debt-to-GDP ratio for these economies fell only marginally to 95.3%, effectively unchanged from its 2019 level prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The United Kingdom recorded a notable improvement, reducing its deficit to 5.4% of GDP, with the change driven by ta