IMF cuts 2021 global growth forecast

The International Monetary Fund is less optimistic about the global economy for 2021, but still sees reasonable growth over the medium term.

The World Economic Outlook, published Tuesday, expects global gross domestic product to grow by 5.9% this year; 0.1 percentage point lower than July estimate. For next year, the IMF has kept its global growth projection at 4.9%.

The revised outlook for this year comes amid supply chain issues in advanced economies and a worsening health situation in emerging countries.

The outlook for the low-income developing country group has darkened considerably due to worsening pandemic dynamics.

The IMF has cut its growth estimates for the U. S. this year by 1 percentage point to 6%. The growth outlooks for Spain and Germany were also cut by 0.5 percentage points each, and Canada’s was reduced by 0.6 percentage points. The IMF forecasts a moderate global growth level of 3.3% over the medium term.

The IMF said it was particularly concerned about the different paces of recovery in advanced and emerging economies.