International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks as she attends IMF/International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) press briefing with International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) chair Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, during the IMF/World Bank 2025 Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 17, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday she was hoping for an agreement between the U.S. and China that avoids a cutoff in the flow of rare earths to the global economy, adding that such restrictions would have a "material impact" on growth.

Georgieva told a press conference during the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington that such a scenario would exacerbate uncertainty and hurt an already weakened global growth picture.

"There is also still a sense of anxiety, because the performance of the world economy is less than we need it to be, and because there is a very dark cloud of uncertainty still holding lower our heads, and that uncertainty has become now the new normal."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao)