WASHINGTON — World leaders should take advantage of the healthiest global growth in years to pursue policies that will spread prosperity to those being left behind, the head of the International Monetary Fund says.

“It is not time to be complacent,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Thursday. “Policymakers can use this moment to provide more certainty and provide for the future risks.”

Lagarde’s warning came as global financial leaders gathered in Washington for the annual meetings of the 189-member IMF and its sister lending organization, the World Bank.

In addition, a meeting of finance officials from the world’s 20 biggest economies, the Group of 20, is wrapping up Friday. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen are representing the United States at these discussions.

IMF forecasters expect the global economy to expand 3.6 percent this year, the fastest pace since 2010. And Lagarde says three-fourths of the world economy is participating in the uptick, creating the broadest recovery in a decade.

But many workers have seen their wages stagnate and their jobs replaced or threatened by technology. And many countries are seeing a widening income gap between rich and poor.

“The result is growing political tensions in many places and increased skepticism about the benefits of globalization,” Lagarde said.

Discontent with globalization and inequality is stoking the populist politics that took Donald Trump to the White House and prompted British voters to opt out of the European Union. “We have to reduce the gap between those who have everything and those who have nothing,” said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.