The IMF cut its forecast for global growth this year, citing a weaker first quarter in the U.S. and warning that financial-market turbulence from China to Greece clouds the outlook.
The world economy will grow 3.3 percent in 2015, less than the 3.5 percent pace projected in April and slower than the 3.4 percent expansion last year, the International Monetary Fund said in revisions to its World Economic Outlook released Thursday in Washington. The fund left its forecast for growth next year unchanged at 3.8 percent.
While the IMF left its 2015 projections for China and the euro area unchanged from April, it singled out both economies as areas sources of potential risk. Chinese stocks have tumbled in recent weeks and Greece is struggling to reach a deal with European creditors to stay in the euro area.
“Disruptive asset price shifts and a further increase in financial market volatility remain an important downside risk,” the fund said in the report.
Much of the global downgrade was driven by the U.S., which the fund now sees growing 2.5 percent this year, compared with 3.1 percent in April. The IMF this week reiterated its recommendation that the Federal Reserve hold off raising interest rates until the first half of next year, when wage and price inflation are expected to pick up.
