IMF Issues Growth Warning as it Lowers 2023 Forecast

A man carrying bags of vegetables walk through an underpass in Beijing on April 11, 2023. (AFP)
A man carrying bags of vegetables walk through an underpass in Beijing on April 11, 2023. (AFP)
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IMF Issues Growth Warning as it Lowers 2023 Forecast

A man carrying bags of vegetables walk through an underpass in Beijing on April 11, 2023. (AFP)
A man carrying bags of vegetables walk through an underpass in Beijing on April 11, 2023. (AFP)

The International Monetary Fund slightly lowered its outlook for the global economy on Tuesday, while predicting that most countries will avoid a recession this year despite economic worries and geopolitical tension.

Concerns over high inflation, rising geopolitical tension and financial stability all hang over the updated forecasts, with the impact of the war in Ukraine continuing to dampen growth and drive up consumer prices in many countries.

Persistent economic concerns could overshadow plans by the IMF and World Bank to promote an ambitious reform and fundraising agenda at this year's spring meetings.

In its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, the IMF predicts the global economy will grow by 2.8 percent this year and three percent in 2024, a decline of 0.1 percentage point from its forecasts in January.

The IMF's forecasts for the United States were slightly rosier: the world's largest economy was expected to grow by 1.6 percent in 2023, marginally higher than the previous forecast.

"The global economy remains on track for a gradual recovery from the pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine," IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told a press conference Tuesday, adding that "the massive and synchronized tightening of monetary policy by most central banks" had begun to bring inflation back towards its target.

"At the same time, serious financial stability related downside risks have emerged," he said, referring to the banking turmoil unleashed last month after the dramatic collapse of Californian high-tech lender Silicon Valley Bank.

Advanced economies drag down growth

The overall picture painted by the WEO is gloomy, with global growth forecast to slow in both the short and medium terms.

Close to 90 percent of advanced economies will experience slowing growth this year, while Asia's emerging markets are expected to see a substantial rise in economic output -- with India and China predicted to account for half of all growth, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said last week.

Low-income countries, meanwhile, are expected to suffer a double shock from higher borrowing costs due to high interest rates, and a decline in demand for their exports, Georgieva said. This could worsen poverty and hunger.

The IMF expects global inflation to slow to seven percent this year, down from 8.7 percent last year, according to the WEO forecasts. It is then expected to fall to 4.9 percent in 2024.

Both 2023 and 2024 inflation forecasts were revised upwards, and remain significantly above the two percent target set by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world, suggesting policymakers have a long way to go before inflation is brought back under control.

Germany on brink of recession

While the picture is one of slowing growth, almost all advanced economies are still expected to avoid a recession this year and next.

Alongside growth in the United States, the Euro area is also forecast to grow by 0.8 percent this year, and 1.4 percent next year -- led by Spain, which will see 1.5 percent growth in 2023 and two percent growth in 2024.

But the area's biggest economy, Germany, is now expected to contract by 0.1 percent this year, joining the United Kingdom, the only other G7 country expected to enter recession in 2023.

The picture is more positive among emerging market economies, with China forecast to grow by 5.2 percent this year. But its growth is predicted to slow to 4.5 percent in 2024, as the impact of its reopening from the Covid-19 pandemic fades.

India's economic forecast has been downgraded compared to January, but it is still predicted to grow by 5.9 percent this year and 6.3 percent in 2024, providing some much-needed stimulus to the global economy.

And Russia is now expected to grow by 0.7 percent this year, up 0.3 percentage point on January's forecast, despite its invasion of Ukraine.

Poor productivity saps outlook

Looking forward, the IMF forecasts that global growth will fall to three percent in 2028, its lowest medium-term forecast since the 1990s.

Slowing population growth and the end of the era of economic catch-up by several countries including China and South Korea are a large part of the expected slowdown, as are concerns about low productivity in many countries, according to Daniel Leigh, who heads the World Economic Studies division in the IMF's Research Department.

"A lot of the low hanging fruit was picked," he told reporters ahead of the publication of the World Economic Outlook.

"On top of that now, with the geopolitical tensions and fragmentation, this is going to also weigh on growth," he said.



French PM Says EU-US Trade Deal an Act of ‘Submission’ and a Dark Day for Europe 

France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on at the Angers' castle during a visit in Angers, western France, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on at the Angers' castle during a visit in Angers, western France, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
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French PM Says EU-US Trade Deal an Act of ‘Submission’ and a Dark Day for Europe 

France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on at the Angers' castle during a visit in Angers, western France, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on at the Angers' castle during a visit in Angers, western France, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)

France called a framework trade deal between the United States and European Union a "dark day" for Europe, saying the bloc had caved in to US President Donald Trump with an unbalanced deal that slaps a headline 15% tariff on EU goods while sparing US imports from any immediate European retaliation.

The criticism from Prime Minister Francois Bayrou followed months of French calls for EU negotiators to take a tougher stance against Trump by threatening reciprocal measures — a position that contrasted with the more conciliatory approaches of Germany and Italy.

"It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission," Bayrou wrote on X of what he called the "von der Leyen-Trump deal".

The high-level French criticism, and President Emmanuel Macron's silence since the deal was signed between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, stood in contrast with the more benign reaction from Berlin and Rome.

French government ministers acknowledged the agreement had some benefits, including exemptions for sectors such as spirits and aerospace, but said it remained fundamentally unbalanced.

"This state of affairs is not satisfactory and cannot be sustained," French European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad said on X, urging the EU to activate its so-called anti-coercion instrument, which would allow for non-tariff retaliation.

Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin criticized the EU's handling of the negotiations, saying the bloc should not have refrained from hitting back in what he described as a power struggle initiated by Trump.

"Donald Trump only understands force," he told France Inter radio. "It would have been better to respond by showing our capacity to retaliate earlier. And the deal could have probably looked different," he added.

Macron had said that the EU should respond in kind if the United States slapped tariffs on EU goods, and apply equivalent measures on US imports into the bloc, in particular on services, in which the US enjoys a surplus with the EU.

But the softer line advocated by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose countries are more dependent than France on exports to the US, prevailed.