IMF again trims global economic growth forecast

Lola Evans
24 Jul 2019, 04:13 GMT+10

The IMF says it has applied a modest 0.1% downward revision, taking the estimated global growth for 2019 to 3.20%
The growth figure for next year 2020 has been revised to 3.50%
Trade tensions remain heightened despite the recent U.S.-China trade truce

WASHINGTON, DC - The IMF has revised downward its projection for global growth, saying the world economy is becoming sluggish.

In its July update of the World Economic Outlook, the international organization says it has applied a modest 0.1% downward revision, taking the estimated global growth for 2019 to 3.20%. The growth figure for next year 2020 has been revised to 3.50%.

The outlook was last revised in April, by which time there had been a number of previous, more significant downward revisions.

The revision for 2019 reflects negative surprises for growth in emerging market and developing economies that offset positive surprises in some advanced economies, the IMF said in a statement published on Tuesday.

Growth is projected to improve between 2019 and 2020. However, close to 70% of the increase relies on an improvement in the growth performance in stressed emerging market and developing economies and is therefore subject to high uncertainty, the statement said.

Global growth is sluggish and precarious, but it does not have to be this way because some of this is self-inflicted. Dynamism in the global economy is being weighed down by prolonged policy uncertainty as trade tensions remain heightened despite the recent U.S.-China trade truce, technology tensions have erupted threatening global technology supply chains, and the prospects of a no-deal Brexit have increased, the IMF said.