IMF forecast: Global growth will weaken this year to 3.3 per cent

Paul Wiseman and Martin Crutsinger, The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, April 9, 2019 9:15AM EDT

WASHINGTON -- The International Monetary Fund is downgrading its outlook for growth in the United States, Europe, Japan and the overall global economy and points to heightened trade tensions as a key reason.

The IMF expects the world economy to grow 3.3% this year, down from 3.6% in 2018. That would match 2016 for the weakest year since 2009. In its previous forecast in January, the IMF had predicted that international growth would reach 3.5% this year.

For the United States, IMF economists downgraded their growth forecast for this year to 2.3% from 2.9% in 2018.

The IMF's World Economic Outlook comes on the eve of meetings in Washington this week of the fund and its sister lending organization, the World Bank.

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