The International Monetary Fund says the U.S. economy is losing momentum.
The IMF said the American economy will expand by only 1.6% this year, down from 2.6% in 2015. The latest forecast is 0.6 percentage points lower than what the fund predicted just three months ago.
The downgrade is mostly down to sluggish second quarter U.S. growth, the fund said in its latest World Economic Outlook.
The world’s largest economy grew by just 1.4% between April and June compared to the same period last year, according to U.S. government data. The performance was well below economist expectations.
“The U.S. economy has lost momentum over the past few quarters, and the expectation of a pickup in the second quarter of 2016 has not been realized,” the IMF said.
