Washington

THE world needs to step up spending to meet the ambitious goals to reduce poverty and protect the environment adopted by the United Nations, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde said.

"For the low-income countries in particular, meeting the additional spending needs will require a strong partnership between all stakeholders - countries themselves, but also official donors, philanthropy, and private finance," Ms Lagarde said on Monday in a speech in London.

While she's optimistic that can be done, Ms Lagarde said meeting the goals is increasingly becoming an "uphill" race as low-income countries struggle with growing debt loads.

She called on all countries to make the development goals a priority, arguing it's in their self-interest. "For without sustainable development at home, the bubbling economic and social pressures - made worse by rapid population growth and growing environmental stress - will surely spill across borders, including through mass movements of peoples."

The UN General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, with the intention of implementing them by 2030. The 17 goals include a pledge to eradicate extreme poverty, defined as living on less than US$1.25 per day, as well as ending discrimination against women and girls, reducing inequality and fighting climate change.

Ms Lagarde said the IMF is estimating spending needs for the goals in education, health, water, roads and electricity. The Washington-based fund is "exploring financing solutions", and will present its findings next week at a special UN session called by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, according to Ms Lagarde.

The IMF warning comes as some developed nations threaten to turn away from the institutions of global cooperation founded after World War II, amid a surge in populist resentment against the established order. US President Donald Trump has said he may withdraw from the World Trade Organization, and Britain is embroiled in a messy divorce from the European Union.

While some regions have made remarkable progress in alleviating poverty over the past few decades, income equality remains one of the global economy's greatest challenges, Ms Lagarde said.

Since 1980, the top one per cent of earners globally have seen their incomes rise twice as much as those in the bottom 50 per cent, she noted, adding that inequality is on the rise in most rich nations.

Climate change "casts a growing shadow over our well-being and especially the well-being of our children," Ms Lagarde said. The best way to address the problem would be to put a "price on carbon", such as by taxing carbon emissions, she pointed out. BLOOMBERG