IMF chief sees growth, overheating, debt risks from US tax cuts

Yogyakarta

INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said she saw positive and negative effects from a "complicated" US tax overhaul, including a near-term growth bump that risks overheating the US economy and a problematic rise in debt.

She told Reuters on Thursday that tax cuts can lift the US growth rate by about 1.2 percentage points over the three years through 2020, which should help boost global growth and trade for at least a few years.

"To the extent that growth is higher in the US, and because the US is a very open economy, it will probably increase the demand from the US to the other economies around the world, and that's also a positive," Ms Lagarde said durin…