George Osborne considers Christine Lagarde to be one of his closest overseas allies, and the French chief of the IMF did nothing to embarrass the Chancellor yesterday.
Despite Labour hopes that the managing director would call for a change of course on Mr Osborne’s austerity plans, Ms Lagarde was conspicuously on-message.
Closing the yawning gap in Britain’s public finances remains “essential”, she told an audience during a whistle-stop visit to London. The IMF supports the Treasury’s goal of moving “decisively on the fiscal front”.
Reading between the lines, however, it is clear that the IMF believes that a change of tack by the Chancellor may soon become necessary. Ms Lagarde warned that “risk levels are rising” in Britain and global economies. The UK Government needed