By Adam Levy
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The head of the International Monetary Fund warned that the American economy won’t grow next year without a deal on the fiscal cliff.
Chistine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, spoke to CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union” about the consequences of the president and Congress failing to reach a comprehensive deal on the automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that would occur without an agreement before the end of the year.
“If the U.S. economy was to suffer the downside risk of not reaching a comprehensive deal, then growth would be zero,” she said. “It would be much better to actually have a more comprehensive approach and to deal with all the issues.”
U.S. gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.7 percent in the third quarter of 2012, according to the Department of Commerce. Going over the fiscal cliff could jeopardize economic growth and put the United States back into a recession.
“The real threat that we have at the moment is really here with us,” Lagarde said when asked about the biggest threat outside the United States. “That can be addressed.”
A former finance minister of France who has been working to stabilize the European economy since taking office in July, Lagarde pressed for a comprehensive solution in lieu of a temporary one that Congress may negotiate before the end of the year.
“I don’t think [a temporary fix] is enough because there is still that degree of uncertainty that fuels doubt that prevents investors, entrepreneurs, households from making decisions, because they don’t know what tomorrow will be,” she said. “They know that a fix has been found for today. But there is still work to be done tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.”
Lagarde predicted the immediate aftermath would cause a “lack of confidence; markets, I think, would react very quickly… the stock markets really taking a hit.”
“The truth of the matter is that the best way out of this would be a balanced solution,” she said. “The best way to go forward is to have a balanced approach that takes into account both increasing the revenue, which means, you know, either raising tax or creating new sources of revenue, and cutting spending as well.”
A lawyer who grew up on Capitol Hill, Lagarde said she hoped a “sense of pragmatism will prevail and will bring people to look at a broader picture than, you know, what happens within the Beltway.”
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