Jackson Hole, Wyoming | IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath has acknowledged that the fast-escalating economic and trade battle between the US and China may be reaching a point of no return and that Australia could face "significant" impacts.

In her first Australian interview, Professor Gopinath warned that global growth was sluggish "and the outlook is precarious" but doesn't believe a recession is imminent, despite yet another inversion in the benchmark US yield curve over the weekend.