IMF cuts global growth forecasts on China’s slowest GDP growth
According to media reports, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut their global growth forecasts for the third time in less than a year following the announcement of China’s slowest GDP growth since 2009 in 2015. The fund lowered its growth forecast for 2016 to 3.4% and for 2017 to 3.6%, both down 0.2% from October’s estimates, citing an economic deceleration in emerging countries stemming from slower Chinese trade and weak commodity prices as the main reason behind its weaker forecasts.
The IMF kept its growth estimates unchanged for China at 6.3% for 2016 and at 6.0% for 2017, while revising its projections for US economic growth downward to 2.6% for both 2016 and 2017, down 0.2% from its October forecast. However, for the eurozone economy, the fund expects to see a growth rate of 1.7% in both 2016 and 2017, up 0.1% from earlier forecasts.
Meanwhile, the fund thinks that the Brazilian economy will continue to experience an economic slowdown in 2016 and that Brazil’s output will contract 3.5% in 2016 before stabilizing in 2017.