The IMF has slightly worsened the growth forecast for the world economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slightly worsened the growth forecast for the world economy. This is due to supply problems and a worsening of the pandemic situation in some developing countries. In the current World Economic Outlook, the IMF expects global gross domestic product (GDP) to increase by 5.9% this year. This is 0.1 percentage point less than expected in July. It left the expansion forecast for 2022 at 4.9%. The revision of the economic outlook for this year comes amid supply chain problems caused by a sharp rise in demand for the corona crisis and a deteriorating health situation in developing countries. "However, this slight overall revision masks a major deterioration in the prospects of some countries," said Gita Gopinath, IMF chief economist. "The outlook for a group of low-income developing countries is significantly more pessimistic about the worsening pandemic dynamics. The deterioration also reflects a more complicated short-term outlook for the group of developed countries, in part due to supply disruptions." The IMF cut its US economic growth forecast for this year by 1 percentage point to 6%. It expects an expansion of 5.2% next year. The euro area economy will improve by 5% this year and by 4.3% in 2022, Japan by 2.4% and 3.2% respectively, and the United Kingdom by 6.8% and 5% respectively. The Chinese economy will grow by 8% this year and by 5.6% next year, the Indian economy by 9.5% and 8.5%, respectively. The IMF expects the world economy to expand at a modest pace of around 3.3% in the medium term after 2022.