The IMF projects smaller than initially expected economic growth for 2016 and 2017.
The Global Economic Outlook report
forecasts a growth of 3,2% this year and 3,5 for 2017. The deceleration
of Chinese economy and knock-on effect on commodity and energy reliant
regional economies, such as Brazil, Nigeria, and Russia explains much of
the pessimism.
Brazil’s economy is set towards a steep 3,8% recession, that is, the
worst in a century. Russia is also expecting recession, albeit not that
steep.
In 2015, the IMF projected 3,8% growth for 2016; that was later
revised to 3,4% before its second successive downward revision of 3,2%
by the increasingly pessimistic Washington-based institution. Launching
the report, the IMF’s chief economist, Maurice Obstfeld, spoke of
increasing disappointment across all types of economies, mature and
emerging.
There are two silver linings in this cloud. The first is India, which
is still expected to remain fast-growing; a second one is China, whose
service-economy transition appears to be somewhat offsetting losses in
manufacturing exports, signaling a smoother than feared transition from
an emerging to a mature economy.
Christine Lagarde described the state of the global
economy as “the new mediocre,” pointing at growth that is “too slow for
too long,” warning of further downward revisions.
https://neurope.eu/article/imfs-world-economic-outlook-even-slower-growth/