U.S. Treasury dismisses IMF debt warning and ‘messy’ forecasting

The International Monetary Fund should check its own forecasting record before criticizing U.S. fiscal policy, David Zervos, newly appointed counselor to the Treasury Secretary, said on Thursday.

“When we see pieces on the IMF, it’s good to remember how messy their forecasts have been in the past,” Zervos said in emailed comments to CNBC.

The former Wall Street economist was responding to the IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who cautioned during the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok on Wednesday that strong U.S. economic growth would not be sufficient to put mounting federal debt on a sustainable course.

Georgieva was herself responding to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who told CNBC in August that the U.S. could “grow our way out” of a rising debt-to-GDP ratio, after government debt surpassed $40 trillion.