Middle East conflict adding to uncertainty amid trade tensions, IMF chief says

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Middle East conflict adding to uncertainty amid trade tensions, IMF chief says  Former European Commission Vice-President and current IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva spoke to Euronews about the state of the global economy amid escalating trade tensions and the outbreak of a new conflict involving Iran.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/06/18/middle-east-conflict-adding-to-uncertainty-amid-trade-tensions-imf-chief  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:00The conflict in the Middle East will further worsen the global economic outlook already strained by ongoing trade disputes.

00:10The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, told Euronews in an interview.

00:19What we witness now is more turbulence in the Middle East, which adds to uncertainty and therefore bad for business.

00:31Of course, even worse for the people that are affected by the war.

00:38For now, what we see is a relatively contained impact to the area where military activities take place.

00:51But there is a push of oil prices up now at around $75 a barrel.

01:01And we don't know what would be the longevity of this conflict.

01:07Neither we know whether there would be spillovers beyond the affected countries.

01:16Since Donald Trump's return to power as leader of the world's largest economy,

01:20international trade has been disrupted by a wave of tariffs imposed by the US administration on its global partners.

01:26Negotiations are currently underway with the EU, which currently faces tariffs of 50% on steel and aluminium,

01:3325% on cars and 10% on all its exports to the US.

01:38Well, the global economy has proven to be remarkably resilient to shocks.

01:44And that resilience continues.

01:46We live in a more shock-prone world, a world of higher uncertainty.

01:53And for this world, countries need to work hard to be more resilient.

01:58Do reforms at home that would make your economies stronger.

02:05In an uncertain context, she also sees opportunities to be seized,

02:09an outlook shared by the European Commission,

02:11which is pursuing a strategy of diversifying its trading partners

02:15by expanding the number of trade agreements worldwide.

02:18In Europe, we see an increase in bilateral and plurilateral agreements,

02:27which I expect to be a big feature of the future of trade globally, not just for Europe.

02:35So, great moment for Europe, a defender of rules-based global economy,

02:44to step up, to take that leadership role of making sure that we move to a world

02:51in which, in the end, the level of tariff and non-tariff barriers goes down.

02:57MALE COUNTRY

03:00MO sized

03:01ISSUES

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