Strong fiscal consolidation is under way and remains essential to achieve a more sustainable budgetary position".
The reality is that the short-term budgetary position in the US has been improving rapidly.
A stronger real economy would have gone a long way to ease the budgetary position.
The agency also cited "growing risks to Greece's budgetary position".
All right: the UK budgetary position was not what it should have been before the financial crisis.
Strong fiscal consolidation "remains essential to achieve a more sustainable budgetary position, thus reducing fiscal risks," the fund said.
The International Monetary Fund recently applauded Britain's spartan approach, saying that "strong fiscal consolidation" is "essential to achieve a more sustainable budgetary position, thus reducing fiscal risks".
Despite a sharp deterioration in the budgetary position in the final months of 2008, the full-year outturn is expected to show a modest surplus.
We expect that most of the improvement in the underlying budgetary position will be used to reduce the deficit, while still giving the chancellor scope to offer some modest giveaways to key groups ahead of the election," he added.
And though the high oil price eases the budgetary position, inflation is more than double the UK's and economic recovery lags way behind that of the other so-called Bric countries, Brazil, India and China.
