Though we are still very early in the calendar year, the International Monetary Fund has already downgraded its forecast for global and U.S. economic growth in twenty sixteen. Citing weakness in the developing world, the organization now predicts that the world economy will expand three point four percent this year, down from an October forecast of three point six percent.
The global economy expanded three point one percent last year, with developing economies collectively expanding four percent. Both figures were the weakest they have been since the recession year of two thousand and nine. As reported by the Associated Press and elsewhere, since the two thousand and eight financial crisis and the Great Recession, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and others have consistently overestimated the strength of the world’s economy.
In January, the World Bank also cut its forecast for global growth this year. Moreover, the International Monetary Fund’s twenty sixteen forecast for the U.S. has been trimmed from two point eight percent to two point six percent. The forecast for Chinese economic growth this year is six point three percent, a far cry from two thousand and ten when the Chinese economy expanded by nearly eleven percent.
