IMF sees US driving world growth
In latest report, fund says China's economic growth will slow to 7.5 per cent this year
Stronger US growth this year and next will help the world economy withstand weaker recoveries in emerging markets including Brazil and Russia, the International Monetary Fund said.
China's economic growth, it said, would slow to 7.5 per cent this year and 7.3 per cent in 2015, avoiding a "hard landing" if the government addresses risks and undertakes reforms.
The US is providing a "major impulse" to global growth that's still lumbering amid weakness in Japan and parts of Europe, the IMF said in a report yesterday. While Britain and Germany are adding to momentum, developing nations face new risks and Russia's takeover of Crimea last month injects geopolitical tension that's "casting a pall" on the region, the fund said.
The IMF urged emerging markets to prepare for flows of capital back to advanced economies and advised the European Central Bank that more monetary easing is needed now to keep deflation at bay.
"The US recovery is the strongest among advanced economies and therefore in a way it's pulling the world," IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said.
The fund predicted global growth of 3.6 per cent this year, compared with a January estimate of 3.7 per cent. Next year, the expansion will accelerate to 3.9 per cent, unchanged from the prior forecast.