Lagarde warns of race to bottom on trade, regulation, taxes

DAVOS: The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Friday that one of the biggest risks to the global economy in 2017 was "a race to the bottom" on taxes, regulations and trade, in an indirect reference to the policy plans of the incoming US administration.

"If the disruptions we are expecting for 2017 as a result of what has happened in 2016 prove to be all negative and we are to end up in a race to the bottom on the tax front, on the trade front, on the financial regulation front, then that for me would be a really big black swan that would have devastating effects," managing director Christine Lagarde told the World Economic Forum in Davos.