The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised up the overall outlook of global 2024 growth forecast to 3.1% from the previous estimate of 2.9%.
The January 2024 World Economic Outlook Update is now projecting global growth to be steady at 3.1% in 2024 and 3.2% in 2025, saying that the global economy has been surprisingly resilient.
According to the global lender, the slight upgrade from the previous projections was mainly due to resilience in the United States and several other large emerging markets and developing economies, while China was boosted by more fiscal measures from the government.
The global headline inflation rate is expected to decrease to 5.8% in 2024 and 4.4% in 2025, with the forecast for 2025 revised down by the Fund. The likelihood of a hard landing has decreased due to faster disinflation and steady growth.
In the revised projection, emerging markets and developing economies are expected to outperform the global economy and advanced economies in 2023-25. EM and DE are expected to grow 4.1%, 4.1% and 4.2% respectively throughout the period, while advanced economies are expected to grow 1.6%, 1.5% and 1.8%, respectively.
The Thai economic growth this year has also been revised up to 4.4% and 2.0% in 2024 and 2025, up 1.2 percentage points and cut 1.1 percentage points, respectively.
The revised by 1.2 percentage points for 2024 economic projection came in as a surprise. The kingdom has not seen such growth that surge above 4% since 2018 that the economy grew 4.2%. If the Thai economy could achieve 4.4% growth, it would be a 12-year high.
