IMF: The rest of the world is picking up the economic slack as US looks weaker

by Dramelin 2:30 AM 0 comments

Despite cutting the economic growth outlook for the U.
, the International Monetary Fund kept its global growth forecast unchanged on expectations the euro zone and Japanese growth would accelerate.
In the July update of its World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecast global economic growth of 3.
5 percent for 2017 and 3.
6 percent for 2018, unchanged from its April outlook.
That was despite earlier cutting its U.
growth projection to 2.
3 percent for 2017 and to 2.
5 percent for 2018, citing both weak growth in the first quarter of this year as well as the assumption that fiscal policy will be less expansionary than previously expected.
A weaker-than-expected first quarter also spurred the IMF to cut its forecast for U.
growth for this year to 1.
0 percent, while leaving its 2018 forecast at 1.
But slowdowns in the U.
were expected to be offset by increased forecasts for many euro area countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, where first quarter growth largely beat expectations, the IMF said.
"This, together with positive growth revisions for the last quarter of 2016 and high-frequency indicators for the second quarter of 2017, indicate stronger momentum in domestic demand than previously anticipated," the IMF said in its release.
It raised its euro-area growth forecast for 2017 to 1.
For 2018, it increased its forecast to 1.
The IMF tweaked its Japan forecast for 2017 to growth of 1.
3 percent, up from 1.
2 percent forecast in April, while leaving its 2018 forecast unchanged at 0.
Additionally, the IMF raised its China growth forecast for 2017 by 0.
1 percentage point to 6.
7 percent, citing a stronger-than-expected first quarter.
For 2018, the IMF raised its China growth forecast by 0.
2 percentage point to 6.
4 percent on expectations authorities will maintain high public investment to meet their target of doubling 2010 real gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020.
For the short term, the IMF saw global risks as "broadly balanced," but added that, in the medium term, risks were "skewed to the downside.