The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday reduced its global growth forecasts for next year, as countries confront the aftermath from inflation, war-driven energy and food crises, and sharply higher interest rates that have brought the world to the verge of recession and threaten the stability of financial markets.
The IMF projects that global growth will slow to 2.7% next year, down 0.2 percentage points from its July forecast, and that many people will experience a recession in 2023.
According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, released on Tuesday, this is “the weakest growth profile since 2001,” surpassing only the peak of the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. GDP projections for this year remained unchanged at 3.2%, down from 6% in 2021.
“The worst is yet to come, and for many people 2023 will feel like a recession,” the report said
More than a third of the global economy will experience two consecutive quarters of negative growth, while the three largest economies — the United States, the European Union, and China — will continue to slow, according to the report.
