$100 trn fiscal time bomb is ticking

Driven by China and US, public debt levels likely to reach warning levels this year

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Even before global finance chiefs fly into Washington over the next few days, they've been urged in advance by the International Monetary Fund to tighten their belts.

Two weeks ahead of a potentially era-defining US election, and with the world's recent inflation crisis barely behind it, ministers and central bankers gathering in the nation's capital face intensifying calls to get their fiscal houses in order while they still can.

The fund, whose annual meetings begin on Monday, has already pointed to some of the themes it hopes to press home with a barrage of projections and studies on the global economy in coming days.