Economy

IMF cuts 2022 global growth projection to 3.2 %

REUTERS / Johannes P. Christo / File Photo
A participant stands near a logo of IMF at the International Monetary Fund – World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, October 12.

Jiji Press

12:19 JST, July 27, 2022

WASHINGTON (Jiji Press) — The International Monetary Fund cut its global economic growth outlook for 2022 by 0.4 percentage point to 3.2 % on Tuesday, bracing for a further slowdown to 2.9 % in 2023.

The prospects for substantially slowing growth in the U.S. and Chinese economies led the IMF to lower its global growth projection from April.

The IMF cuts its 2022 growth forecast for China by 1.1 points to 3.3 %, citing the effect of Beijing’s zero tolerance policy for COVID-19 and the deepening of a property market crisis.

The U.S. economy will also face a major setback because of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases and slowing personal consumption, the IMF said, expecting the U.S. economy to grow 2.3 % this year, down 1.4 points from its April projection.

Global growth is expected to slow further to 2.6 % in 2022 and 2.0 % in 2023 under a scenario in which Russia completely stops supplying natural gas to Europe by the end of 2022, the IMF said.

For Japan, the IMF lowered its growth projection by 0.7 point to 1.7 % for 2022 and by 0.6 point to 1.7 % for 2023.

The Japanese economy will be underpinned by the Bank of Japan’s monetary easing and the government’s fiscal stimulus, although being hit by the global slowdown, the IMF said.