The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday downgraded further its outlook for the world economy, predicting that growth this year will be the weakest since the 2008 financial crisis primarily because of widening global conflicts.
The Breton Woods institution hinges its latest forecast on the raging U.S-China trade wars as well as other threats in the Middle East.
Specifically, the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook foresees a slight rebound in 2020 but warns of threats ranging from heightened political tensions in the Middle East to the threat that the United States and China will fail to prevent their trade war from escalating.
According to an online news report sourced from New York Times, the updated forecast was prepared for the fall meetings this week of the 189-nation IMF and its sister lending organization, the World Bank. The series of meetings and subsequent meeting of finance ministers and central bankers of the world’s 20 biggest economies on Friday are expected to be dominated by efforts to de-escalate trade wars.
According to the latest forecast, global growth is predicted to be 3% this year, down 0.2 percentage point from its previous forecast in July and sharply below the 3.6% growth of 2018. For the United States this year, the IMF projects a modest 2.4% gain, down from 2.9% in 2018.
Next year, the fund foresees a rebound for the global economy to 3.4% growth but a slowdown in the United States to 2.1%, far below the 3% growth the Trump administration’s projections.
In view of the increasingly risky global economic space, IMF economists have cautioned that even the institution’s projected modest gains might not be realized.
Commenting on the latest projections the IMF’s chief economist, Gita Gopinath, cautioned: “With a synchronized slowdown and uncertain recovery, there is no room for policy mistakes, and an urgent need for policymakers to cooperatively de-escalate trade and geopolitical tensions.”.
It would be recalled that last week, the United States and China reached a temporary cease-fire in their trade fight when President Donald Trump agreed to suspend a tariff hike on $250 billion of Chinese products that was to take effect this week.
Analysts say that with no formal agreement reached and many issues yet to resolved, further talks will be required to achieve any meaningful breakthrough. The Trump administration’s threat to raise tariffs on an additional $160 billion in Chinese imports on Dec. 15 remains in effect.
The IMF’s forecast predicted further that about half the increase in growth expected next year would result from recoveries in countries where economies slowed significantly this year, as in Mexico, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
This year’s slowdown, the IMF stated was caused largely by trade disputes, which resulted in higher tariffs being imposed on many goods. Growth in trade in the first half of this year slowed to 1%, the weakest annual pace since 2012.
The IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, who will be presiding over the first IMF meetings this month, had said last week that the various trade disputes could produce a loss of around $700 billion or 0.8% of world output by the end of next year.
IMF economists noted further that one worrisome development is that the slowdown this year had occurred even as the Federal Reserve and other central banks have been cutting interest rates and deploying other means to bolster economies.
The IMF estimated that global growth would have been about one-half percentage point lower this year and in 2020 without the central banks’ efforts to ease borrowing rates.
“With central banks having to spend limited ammunition to offset policy mistakes, they may have little left when the economy is in a tougher spot,” Gopinath said.
In addition to trade and geopolitical risks, the IMF envisions threats arising from a potentially disruptive exit by Britain from the European Union on Oct. 31. The IMF urged policymakers to intensify their efforts to avoid economically damaging mistakes.
The IMF economist explained further: “As policy priorities go, undoing the trade barriers put in place with durable agreements and reining in geopolitical tensions top the list.
“Such actions can significantly boost confidence, rejuvenate investment, halt the slide in trade and manufacturing and raise world growth”, Gopinath added.
The IMF projected that growth in the 19-nation euro area will slow to 1.2% this year, after a 1.9% gain in 2018. It expects the pace to recover only slightly to 1.4% next year.
Growth in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is expected to be a modest 0.5% this year before rising to 1.2% next year.
China’s growth is projected to dip to 6.1% this year and 5.8% next year. These would be the slowest rates since 1990, when China was hit by sanctions after the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
For Japan, the IMF expects growth of just 0.5% next year. It foresees an expansion in Russia of 1.9%, up from 1.1% this year.
And Mexico is forecast to experience growth of 1.3% next year, far better than the lackluster 0.4% gain envisioned for this year.
