IMF’s Lagarde: markets got ‘Brexit’ vote wrong, but did not panic

IMF Managing Director Lagarde delivers a speech in ViennaThomson Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Financial markets “vastly underestimated” the outcome of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union but did not panic on Friday, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Sunday.

“There was a violent, brutal, immediate massive move, the pound went down by 10 percent,” Lagarde told a forum at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. “But there was no panic and the central bankers did the job that they were prepared to do just in case, which was to put a lot of liquidity on the markets.”

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Sandra Maler)