Central Banks

World’s Higher-for-Longer Rate Era Stokes Worry

  • A lot ‘could go wrong,’ Gopinath tells IMF gathering
  • Officials eye risks of tighter lending on banks, real estate

Gita Gopinath, Christine Lagarde, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala during a panel session at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Now that the higher-for-longer interest-rate era has arrived, global finance officials are getting worried about the consequences.

Rising long-term bond yields signal investors increasingly believe cheap borrowing is over. Multiple attendees at the International Monetary Fund’s meetings this week cautioned that the wholesale tightening now risks inflicting a shock to a world economy already on edge as war rages in the Middle East.