IMF revises down global growth forecast for 2019-2021

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its growth forecasts for 2019-2021, primarily reflecting negative surprises to economic activity in a few emerging markets.

In its latest World Economic Outlook, the fund expected global economy to grow 2.9% in 2019, 3.3% in 2020, and 3.4% in 2021

The previous growth projections were 3% for last year, 3.4% for this year and 3.6% for next year.

"A more subdued growth forecast for India accounts for the lion's share of the downward revisions," it said.

IMF expects the effects of monetary easing across advanced and emerging market economies in 2019 to continue working their way through the global economy this year.

The global recovery is projected to be accompanied by a pickup in trade growth, reflecting a recovery in domestic demand and investment in particular, as well as the fading of some temporary drags in the auto and tech sectors.

The fund added that these outcomes depend to an important extent on avoiding further escalation in the US-China trade tensions.

The growth in advanced economies is projected to stabilize at 1.6% in 2020-21, down 0.1 percentage point from its previous estimation.

"For the emerging market and developing economy group, growth is expected to increase to 4.4% in 2020 and 4.6% in 2021, from an estimated 3.7% in 2019," it noted.