CHRISTINE LAGARDE has warned that the problems of the European debt crisis are now too large for European countries to fix alone.

Speaking in Washington, Lagarde said no single economy was “immune” to the contagion being caused by the crisis – and called for a united global effort to end the crisis and avert a 1930s-style economic catastrophe.

“There is no economy in the world – whether low-income countries, emerging markets, middle-income countries or super-advanced economies – that will be immune to the crisis that we see not only unfolding but escalating,” she told an audience at the US State Department.

It’s not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action… tt’s going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking action.

If the issues were not dealt with decisively, she said, the global economy could face the same threats that pushed the world into the Great Depression of the 1930s.

She added: “Clearly it’s going to have to start from the core of the crisis at the moment, which is obviously the European countries, and in particular the countries of the eurozone”.

Last week EU nations agreed to lend a further €200 billion to the IMF in order to give it greater power in ending the debt crisis.

Additional reporting by AP

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