IMF Cuts Economic Outlook For Europe and U.S.
Friday, September 23rd, 2011The combined gross domestic products (GDP) of the world’s developed economies (countries with highly developed economies) will expand “at an anemic [slow] pace of 1.5 percent in 2011,” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced, pointing to “financial turbulence in the eurozone” and continuing political and economic problems in the United States. (The eurozone is the 17 member countries of the European Union that have adopted the euro as their single currency.) The 187-member IMF conducts economic analysis and lends money to countries in financial distress.
The IMF lowered its outlook for the 17 eurozone countries to 1.6 percent growth in 2011 and 1.1 percent 2012, down from June projections of 2 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively. The IMF expects U.S. economic growth to shrink to 1.5 percent this year and 1.8 percent next, down from June forecasts of 2.5 percent in 2011 and 2.7 percent in 2012. It projects that global growth will shrink to 4 percent in 2012, from 5 percent in 2010. Stronger growth in Brazil, China, India, and other developing countries should offset weaker output in Europe and the United States, suggested the IMF’s chief economist, Olivier Blanchard.
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