The conflict in Ukraine is prompting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cut global growth estimates for both 2022 and 2023 as higher food and energy prices pressure fragile economies, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday.

Georgieva said in a "curtain raiser" speech for next week's IMF and World Bank spring meetings that the fund would downgrade its growth outlooks for 143 economies, representing 86 percent of global economic output, but most countries will maintain positive growth.

Georgieva, who previously warned that the conflict would drag on growth this year, said the Ukraine crisis was "sending shockwaves throughout the globe" and dealing a massive setback to countries struggling to recover from the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic. 

"To put it simply, we are facing a crisis on top of a crisis," Georgieva said in remarks to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "In economic terms, growth is down and inflation is up. In human terms, people's income are down and hardship is up."

The IMF, which is set to release new economic forecasts on Tuesday, anticipates that inflation, now a "clear and present danger" for many economies, will remain elevated for longer than previously expected.

Georgieva did not provide a specific target for global growth, but has said previously it would be lower than the IMF's January forecast of 4.4 percent, a figure already reduced by half a percentage point due to lingering supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic.