No turning point in sight as IMF predicts sluggish global growth

• Global growth appears to have bottomed out but there is no rebound in sight and risks ranging from trade tensions to climate shocks makes the outlook uncertain, a top International Monetary Fund official said on Monday.
• For 2020 and 2021, the IMF trimmed back its global growth forecasts, mostly due to a sharper-than-expected slowdown in India and other emerging markets, even as it said that a U.S.-China trade deal added to hopes the activity was bottoming out.
• With trade wars weighing on exports and investment, the global economy expanded by 2.9% last year, its slowest pace since the global financial crisis, despite near synchronized central bank easing that added half a percentage point to global growth.
• “We have not reached a turning point yet,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said told a news conference on the eve of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. “The reality is that global growth remains sluggish.

Source: Reuters

 

 

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