Recovery will be 'painful', IMF's Christine Lagarde warns Urging policymakers to deliver on their promises of co-ordinated global action to restore growth, she said: "For many economies, under present circumstances it will take years of fiscal adjustment to get back to pre-crisis levels. And again, without sufficient growth, we should not delude ourselves about how painful this is going to be. She said: "We have seen positive market responses before [to policy announcements] that turned out to be short-lived. This time, we need a sustained rebound, not a bounce. If this time is to be different, we need certainty, not uncertainty. We need decision-makers to be real action-takers. We need delivery. She added that more needs to be done to fix the financial sector. Worryingly, the energy to implement the reforms that have been agreed is waning. I am often asked, five years into the crisis, whether the financial sector is safer today than it was then. My answer? "Despite real progress, not yet.""