Global Growth Now Projected at 3.1% For 2013

The IMF ("International Monetary Fund") released an update to their April 2013 World Economic Outlook (WEO) earlier today.

The IMF now expects that the global economy will grow 3.1% this year, down from an original April estimate of 3.3%. The IMF blames a number of different factors on this downward revision, including "continuing growth disappointments" in emerging economies, the deep recession in the Eurozone and slower than expected growth in the United States.

The IMF's global growth expectations for 2014 also took a haircut, as the organization now believes that world output will grow by 3.8% in 2014, down from their April 2013 estimate of 4.0%.

The IMF now predicts that the "advanced economies" (United States, Euro area, Germany, etc) will now grow 1.2% this year, down from an original estimate of 1.3%.

The United States, according to the report, will see their economy grow by 1.7% in 2013 and 2.7% in 2014, down from an original estimate of 1.9% and 2.9% respectively.

It's not all bad news for the advanced economies, however, as Japan is expected to grow at 2.0% in 2013 (upwards revision of 0.5%), while the United Kingdom is expected to grow by 0.9% (upwards revision of 0.3%) this year.

Many of the emerging and developing economies in the world are also expected to grow at a slower rate than they were just three months ago.

China, according to the IMF, will see their economy grow by 7.8% in 2013 (-0.3% compared to the IMF's April 2013 estimate) and 7.7% in 2014 (-0.6%). The IMF took a hatchet to Russia's growth estimates, cutting their projected output by 0.9% in 2013 and 0.5% in 2014.

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The IMF states that downside risks "still dominate the outlook" and that a number of different factors, including slowing credit growth in emerging market economies, could continue to pose risks for the global economy going forward.

Source: IMF.org - World Economic Outlook Update

Filed under: General Knowledge