Georgieva said during her appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation that the world’s largest economies such as the United States, China and the European Union will be among those to contract .

Another COVID-19 surge in China will reverberate throughout the world economy, Georgieva said of one of the largest exporters of cheap goods.

“For the next couple of months, it would be tough for China, and the impact on Chinese growth would be negative, the impact on the region will be negative, the impact on global growth will be negative,” she said.

“For the first time in 40 years, China’s growth is likely to be at or below global growth.”

The director said while the world economy has tripled in the last four decades, there has been too much focus on cost. COVID-19 and Russia’s war with Ukraine brought to light that the focus cannot solely be on “what is cheaper.”

“That means diversifying the sources of products that make the economy function well, lifting up the level of costs,” she said.

When asked about U.S. sanctions on Chinese tech, Georgieva said breaking the “interactions” that make for fair trade will not only hurt the Chinese.

“You harm your own people,” the director said. “It has to be talked through very carefully.”

“The U.S. is right to look into some areas where strategically they need to guarantee the functioning of the U.S. economy without interruptions,” she added. “But do that keeping in mind the interest of the American people.”

The IMF published its global economic outlook for 2023 in October, forecasting that economic growth will slow by about half a percent in 2023 over 2022.

“The global deceleration will be broad-based, and the 2023 projection is less than half of last year’s 6 percent expansion,” the report said.

“Countries accounting for about a third of the global economy are estimated to have a two-quarter contraction in real gross domestic product this year or next.”