Economy
Global economy: IMF slightly lowers growth forecast
Container over container – symbol of the global economy. Photo: – / CHINATOPIX / AP / dpa
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The corona pandemic also has economic consequences. Some countries feel it more, others much less.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reduced its forecast for global economic growth this year by a marginal 0.1 percentage points to 5.9 percent.
As in the previous forecast from July, the IMF continues to expect growth of 4.9 percent for 2022, as the organization said on Tuesday.
However, the slight change in the global growth forecast conceals significant downgrades for some countries, as chief economist Gita Gopinath explained. “The outlook for the poorer developing countries has darkened significantly,” wrote Gopinath, referring to the economic consequences of the pandemic. The short-term prospects of the industrialized countries have also deteriorated due to problems with global supply chains, among other things. The downgrades would be partly offset by better growth prospects for commodity exporters, who benefit from higher prices.
For Germany, the IMF corrected its forecast for this year by 0.5 percentage points downwards: The gross domestic product is expected to grow by 3.1 percent in 2021. For 2022, the IMF is expecting strong growth of 4.6 percent. The IMF raised its forecast for the euro zone for 2021 by 0.4 percentage points to 5 percent – supported in part by stronger expected growth in Italy and France.
The IMF lowered the growth forecast for the USA, the world’s largest economy, by one percentage point to 6 percent this year, and raised it slightly to 5.2 percent for 2022.