IMF Raises Forecast for Global Growth, Sees Multispeed Recovery 
April 21 (International Monetary Fund) -- In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), the IMF said among the advanced economies, the United States is off to a better start than Europe and Japan. Among emerging and developing economies, emerging Asia is leading the recovery, while many emerging European and some Commonwealth of Independent States economies are lagging behind.
China’s growth is forecast at 10 percent in 2010, with India also at a rapid 8.8 percent. Sub-Saharan Africa has weathered the crisis well and its recovery is expected to be stronger than in previous global downturns. In the depth of the crisis last year, world economic activity contracted by 0.6 percent as world trade slumped and credit froze up.
“We find ourselves at an important new stage of the crisis,” IMF Research Department Director Olivier Blanchard told an April 21 news briefing in Washington. “A global depression has been averted. The world economy is recovering, and recovering better than we had previously thought likely.” But he added that achieving strong, sustained, and balanced growth would require more work, namely fiscal consolidation in advanced countries, exchange rate adjustments, and a rebalancing of demand across the world.
The report said that despite improvements, the outlook remains unusually uncertain, and downside risks stemming from fiscal fragilities have come to the fore. A key concern is that room for policy maneuvers in many advanced economies has either been exhausted or become much more limited. Moreover, sovereign risks in advanced economies could undermine financial stability gains and extend the crisis. The rapid increase in public debt and deterioration of fiscal balance sheets could be transmitted back to banking systems or across borders.
April 21 (International Monetary Fund) -- In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), the IMF said among the advanced economies, the United States is off to a better start than Europe and Japan. Among emerging and developing economies, emerging Asia is leading the recovery, while many emerging European and some Commonwealth of Independent States economies are lagging behind.China’s growth is forecast at 10 percent in 2010, with India also at a rapid 8.8 percent. Sub-Saharan Africa has weathered the crisis well and its recovery is expected to be stronger than in previous global downturns. In the depth of the crisis last year, world economic activity contracted by 0.6 percent as world trade slumped and credit froze up.
“We find ourselves at an important new stage of the crisis,” IMF Research Department Director Olivier Blanchard told an April 21 news briefing in Washington. “A global depression has been averted. The world economy is recovering, and recovering better than we had previously thought likely.” But he added that achieving strong, sustained, and balanced growth would require more work, namely fiscal consolidation in advanced countries, exchange rate adjustments, and a rebalancing of demand across the world.
The report said that despite improvements, the outlook remains unusually uncertain, and downside risks stemming from fiscal fragilities have come to the fore. A key concern is that room for policy maneuvers in many advanced economies has either been exhausted or become much more limited. Moreover, sovereign risks in advanced economies could undermine financial stability gains and extend the crisis. The rapid increase in public debt and deterioration of fiscal balance sheets could be transmitted back to banking systems or across borders.
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