US housing market, fiscal policy pose risks: IMF

The US economic recovery could be dented by a renewed drop in housing prices in the short term and the country lacks a "credible, comprehensive" fiscal plan, posing a major medium-term economic risk, a top IMF official said. International Monetary Fund Deputy Managing Director Min Zhu also urged the European Central Bank not to hesitate to use unconventional monetary policies to help spur growth, repeating the Fund's forecast for the euro zone to experience a mild recession in 2012.
He said Chinese growth could fall by up to 4 percentage points if the European crisis takes a sharp turn for the worse, and also said global liquidity has surpassed excess levels seen in 2007, posing a challenge to policymakers. Zhu made the remarks on Thursday but they were released for publication on Friday.