WASHINGTON - The global economy is still fraught with uncertainty and still far from where it needs to be, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said here on Monday.

"We continue to project a gradual recovery, but global growth will likely be a bit weaker than we had anticipated even in July, and our forecast has trended downward over the last 12 months," Lagarde said at a luncheon event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington-based think tank.

"A number of factors are weighing the global economy down. At the center of them all is the element of uncertainty; uncertainty about whether policymakers can and will deliver on their promises," she noted.

The global economic growth was confronted with a number of challenges including the ongoing eurozone debt crisis, a tepid recovery in the United States, the economic slowdown in emerging markets, and great concerns in low-income countries about rising food prices and volatile commodity prices, added the IMF chief.

The global economic recovery hinges on delivering on the policy commitments that have been made, she stressed.