WSJ: Lagarde says all countries must help Europe

16 December 2011

The head of the International Monetary Fund sketched a dim outlook for the global economy, and said all countries must work together to resolve Europe's escalating debt crisis.

IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, said Europe's problems will not be solved by Europe alone. "It's not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action,", Ms Lagarde said in remarks at a State Department conference. "It's going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking action."

She cautioned financial markets to allow time for individual nations to work through the political process to arrive at a solution. "It would be ideal and it would be lovely from a market perspective if it was not just currently but immediately signed, sealed and delivered, done deal, overnight", she said. "Unfortunately, for those of you who have the privilege of belonging to democracies, things do not happen in that way and things do take time and have to go through parliamentary processes."

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