Central banks must continue to tighten monetary policy, and policymakers must resist pressure to spend public money in ways that could fuel inflation, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund said, Politico reported.

"Fighting inflation is the overwhelming priority everywhere," Kristalina Georgieva said at a Bruegel think tank event in Brussels, adding that "fiscal policy has to provide cushions for the most vulnerable people … there will be pressure to do more for everybody, and that pressure needs to be resisted."

The IMF has repeatedly lowered growth forecasts for this and next year. The global economy shrank 2 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter, Georgieva said. "This is a very difficult year and the next one will very likely be harder."

Georgieva's statement came at a time when EU countries are preparing for a difficult winter ahead as energy and gas prices hit record highs, aided by Russia's decision to cut off gas supplies to Europe indefinitely.

Protests have begun in the Czech Republic, Poland and elsewhere demanding lower prices, and EU governments are working out payments and tax breaks to curb public discontent, spending about 2 percent of their GDP in many cases.

But that won't help, says Georgieva. "If we’re going for a very generous sort of support which the populations in many countries are demanding and putting pressures on politician, then fiscal policy becomes the enemy of monetary policy, it actually makes the fight against inflation much more difficult," she said.