By Alessandra Galloni

DAVOS. Switzerland (Reuters). Despite the headwinds facing the world economy, current growth forecasts can provide a cushion against a global recession. Monday, the 2 official stated.

Gita Gopinath, IMF’s First Deputy Managing director, stated to Reuters that there are major risks to economic growth. She also said that Ukraine’s conflict could become more intense.

In an interview, Gopinath stated that inflation and central bank tightenings of interest rates were the main challenges facing the country. He also spoke out about slowing Chinese growth.

Gopinath explained that all these risks pose downside risks for our forecast. He made reference to Gopinath’s IMF 2022 growth prediction of 3.6% last month, which was a drop from the January 4.4% estimate.

She stated, “I believe at 3.6% there would be a buffer,” but admitted that the risks around the globe are not equal.

Gopinath stated, “There is a country that’s getting hard hit… there are countries in Europe getting hard hit by the war. There could be technical recessions.”

Gopinath claimed that inflation would remain “significantly above central banks targets for a while”. Gopinath added, “It is very important that central bankers across the globe deal with inflation in a clear danger. It is something they should deal with with a very forceful way.”

“Financial circumstances could become more tight than what we’ve seen.” “And China is experiencing slow growth,” she said.

Two rate rises have been made by the U.S. Federal Reserve this year.

At half a point it was the highest in 22 year. Two more such numbers are anticipated at the upcoming meetings.

Gopinath stated that it was very important for the Fed “to watch the data closely and to respond on a scale necessary to deal with the coming data.”

If inflation turns out to be particularly wide… and is rising even more, then they might need to take a stronger reaction.”