On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde highlighted four major areas of concern in regards to the U.S. economy.
WATCH:
.@Lagarde flags the 4 forces undermining future US growth. https://t.co/MJLxbGsdRj pic.twitter.com/jy1KbVLQ8O
— IMF (@IMFNews) June 22, 2016
President Barack Obama President (Getty Images)
Despite being in “good shape” compared to the 2007 economic-levels, “the U.S. faces potentially significant longer-term challenges to strong and sustained growth,” the IMF wrote in a Wednesday release.
(International Monetary Fund)
(International Monetary Fund)
Legarde also listed several policy actions to alleviate the effects of “falling labor force participation, an increasingly polarized income distribution, high levels of poverty and weak productivity.”
• Increase state and federal infrastructure investment.
• Adopt comprehensive skills-based immigration reform.
• Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit combined with an increase in the federal minimum wage.
• Upgrade social programs for the nonworking poor.
• Deepen and improve family-friendly benefits including paid family leave and childcare assistance.
• Increase funding for training programs, vocational partnerships, and early childhood education. Raise the effectiveness of spending on science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.
• Comprehensively reform the corporate income tax.
• Ratify the Trans Pacific Partnership, conclude a trade and investment treaty with Europe, and resist all forms of protectionism.
The IMF also drew attention to the economy’s “growth setback” over the past few quarters, which caused them to downgrade total growth projections from 2.4 percent for 2016 to 2.2 percent.
You can read the IMF’s entire report online.