IMF admits late to act on crunch

The boss of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has admitted that its warnings about the global credit crunch were not loud or early enough.

Yet IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said there was no point in a blame game, and the IMF should now look towards the future.

Mr Strauss-Kahn joined the IMF at the end of September last year, after the global credit squeeze first hit.

The IMF's key role is preserving international financial stability.

'Ice and fire'

"We're not going to blame for the past, the question is how can we have for the future, an institution which is likely to give to different governments early warning and warning which will be listened to," said Mr Strauss-Kahn.

Several IMF officials have pointed out in recent days that they had warned about the dangers of bad debt in the US mortgage market that last summer sparked the continuing global financial woes.

Speaking at the IMF's headquarters in Washington, Mr Strauss-Kahn also described the current economic situation as between "ice and fire".

The ice is what he called the risk of a serious slowdown in global economic growth, the fire is the fact that inflation may be back.

Most notably in global food prices, Mr Strauss-Kahn warned this food inflation could undermine recent gains in reducing poverty.

The IMF warned earlier this week that the world economy will grow much more slowly in the next two years than previously predicted.

Looking at the US specifically, the IMF believes it will go into a "mild recession" this year.

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