MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts global growth at 3.7% both for this year and next year, 0.2 percentage points below the last assessments, according to the World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.
"Now, in October 2018, the outlook is one of less balanced and more tentative expansion than we hoped for last April. Growth in the United States remains exceptionally robust for now, powered by a procyclical fiscal expansion that may, however, weigh on US and global growth later. But we have downgraded near-term growth prospects for the euro area, Korea, and the United Kingdom," the report said.
"Our reassessment is more dramatic for emerging markets as a group, where we see growth easing in Latin America (notably Argentina, Brazil, Mexico), the Middle East (notably Iran), and emerging Europe (notably Turkey)," the report added.
"Our 2019 growth projection for China is also lower than in April, given the latest round of US tariffs on Chinese imports, as are our projections for India," the report said.
"Owing to these changes, our international growth projections for both this year and next are downgraded to 3.7%, 0.2 percentage point below our last assessments and the same rate achieved in 2017. At the global level, recent data show weakening in trade, manufacturing, and investment. Overall, world economic growth is still solid compared with earlier this decade, but it appears to have plateaued," IMF noted.