By Reuters Reporter Positive economic data and signs of compromise in Congress have the International Monetary Fund predicting faster economic growth in the United States next year. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde also praised the U.S. Federal Reserve's announcement last week that it intends to scale back its massive monetary stimulus. 'Growth is picking up,' Lagarde said. 'And unemployment is going down. So all of that gives us a much stronger outlook for 2014, which brings us to raising our forecast.' Things looking up: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced Sunday that the Washington-based lender will upgrade their economic forecast for the U.S. for the coming year
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Managing Director Christine Lagarde of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund said Sunday that the lender predicts 2014 will be a year of growth in the U.S.
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Lagarde credited signs of compromise in Congress in addition to the Fed's announcement
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The IMF predicts 2.6 percent growth next year after growing 1.6 in 2013
At the time, Lagarde warned that Congressional failure to raise the @placeholder debt ceiling could damage not only the United States, but the rest of the global economy.
A @placeholder, deeply divided along party lines, did manage to pass a limited, two-year budget deal last week to trim some planned spending cuts and reduce the risk of a government shutdown.