High corporate valuations could pose a significant risk to financial stability, the IMF's director of monetary and capital markets said Tuesday.
"There's always this question, if a negative shock were to hit to what extent do we see a readjustment of pricing," he said. Financial markets have been on a tear for much of this year, buoyed by falling inflation and hopes of forthcoming interest rate cuts. But that"optimism" has stretched company valuations to a point where that could become vulnerable to an economic shock, Tobias Adrian said.
Adrian, who was speaking on the side lines of the IMF's Spring Meeting in Washington, said that credit markets were a particular area of concern."I would point to credit markets, where spreads are very tight even though borrower fundamentals are deteriorating, at least in some segments," he said.The IMF's financing concerns also extend to the property market, and chiefly commercial real estate, which Adrian said had grown"somewhat worrisome.