A bigger, bolder and broader approach is required on efforts to deal with refugees from war-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Wednesday.

She was participating in a panel discussion on refugees at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. Lagarde said that considering the scale of the humanitarian crisis, financing volumes and levels of government support needed to be bigger.

The IMF in January estimated that budgetary expenses for asylum seekers could reach nearly 0.2 percent of GDP for European countries in 2016, up from 0.08 percent in 2014. But Lagarde said the refugee influx can boost growth potential if integrated into European workforces.

She added that longer-term annual GDP growth could increase by 0.2 percentage points on average in Europe. Some countries could even see growth increasing by 0.5 percentage point.