ISTANBUL: The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday revised its global economic growth forecast for 2024 upwards to 3.2 per cent, 0.1 percentage point higher than an earlier estimate from January, Anadolu Agency reported.
Advanced economies are projected to expand 1.7 per cent this year, according to its World Economic Outlook April report. The figure is a 0.2 percentage point upgrade from the January estimate of 1.5 per cent.
“The pace of expansion is low by historical standards, owing to both near-term factors, such as still-high borrowing costs and withdrawal of fiscal support, and longer-term effects from the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; weak growth in productivity; and increasing geoeconomic fragmentation,” said the report.
The latest forecast for global economic growth five years from now on is at 3.1 per cent – its lowest in decades, according to the financial agency.
The IMF warned that “geoeconomic fragmentation could intensify with higher barriers to the flow of goods, capital, and people implying a supply-side slowdown.”
Among advanced economies, the US economy is expected to grow 2.7 per cent in 2024, up 0.6 percentage points from 2.1 percent, according to the report.
The euro area’s growth forecast, however, was revised down to 0.8 per cent, from 0.9 per cent. Both growth estimates for Germany and France were revised down by 0.3 percentage points each, as they are expected to grow 0.2 per cent and 0.7 per cent this year, respectively.
Emerging market and developing economies’ growth estimate was revised up 0.1 percentage points to 4.2 per cent from 4.1 per cent.
While China’s growth forecast for 2024 was kept unchanged at 4.6 per cent, India’s estimate was revised up 0.3 percentage points to 6.8 per cent, and Russia’s was moved up 0.6 percentage points to 3.2 per cent. – BERNAMA-ANADOLU
