Europe must limit crisis damage: IMF chief

March 17, 2008

The most urgent economic priority for European governments is to limit the damage from "the financial market crisis" amid threats of inflation and recession, the head of the IMF said on Monday. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, speaking at a joint press conference with the OECD chief, warned of a risk of stagflation, the combination of rising prices, which forces central banks to keep interest rates high, and slowing growth.