The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) presented its outlook for 2020, saying that the global economy will
strengthen this year, though at a slower pace than previously expected. The fund
cited tensions in the Middle East and trade disputes as the main factors that
drag the economy down.
According to the IMF, global growth will accelerate to 3.3%
in 2020 from 2.9% in 2019, which will mark the first increase since 2017. The outlook
is worse compared to the figures released in October last year.
The fund said that the central banks’ efforts to stimulate the economies in their respective countries contributed with 0.5% of the global growth. Last year, the US Fed, the European Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Bank of Japan cut their interest rates on several occasions.
BlackRock top executive Philip Hildebrand commented:
“Globally the big
story is this extraordinary pivot by central banks in 2019. What’s been holding
this back or offsetting this is the trade risks, the geopolitical risks, so if
we can pull back on those, we should see global growth edging up.”
The IMF made slightly reduced the projects for the eurozone and the US while cutting India’s forecast more than a percentage point.