THE outlook for the global economy is growing slightly brighter as China eases its zero-Covid policies and the world shows surprising resilience in the face of high inflation, elevated interest rates and Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
That’s the view of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which now expects the world economy to grow 2.9 percent this year. That forecast is better than the 2.7 percent expansion for 2023 that the IMF predicted in October, though down from the estimated 3.4 percent growth in 2022.
The IMF, a 190-country lending organization, foresees inflation easing this year, as a result of aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks. Those rate hikes are expected to slow consumer demand which has driven prices higher.
Globally, the IMF expects consumer inflation to fall from 8.8 percent last year to 6.6 percent in 2023 and 4.3 percent in 2024.
“Global conditions have improved as inflation pressures started to abate,” the IMF chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, said at a news conference in Singapore. “The road back to a full recovery with sustainable growth, stable prices and progress for all has only started.”
A big factor in the upgrade to global growth was China’s decision late last year to lift anti-virus controls that had kept millions of people at home. The IMF said China’s “recent reopening has paved the way for a faster-than-expected recovery.’’
China’s economy
The IMF now expects China’s economy — the world’s second-biggest, after the United States — to grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its October forecast of 4.4 percent. Beijing’s economy eked out growth of just three percent in 2022 — the first year in more than 40, the IMF noted, that China has expanded more slowly than the world as a whole. But the end of virus restrictions is expected to revive activity in 2023.
Together, China and India should account for half of this year’s global growth, while the United States and Europe contribute 10 percent, according to Gourinchas.
“China’s reopening is certainly a favorable factor that’s going to lead to more activity,” Gourinchas said. “But this is in the context in which the global economy itself is slowing down.”
The IMF’s 2023 growth outlook improved for the United States (forecast to grow 1.4 percent), as well as for the 19 countries that share the euro currency (0.7 percent). Europe, though suffering from energy shortages and higher prices resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, proved “more resilient than expected,’’ the IMF said. The European economy benefited from a warmer-than-expected winter, which held down demand for natural gas.
Russia’s growth
Russia’s economy, hit by sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine, has proved sturdier than expected, too: The IMF’s forecast foresees Russia registering 0.3 percent growth this year. That would mark an improvement from a contraction of 2.2 percent in 2022. And it’s well above the 2.3 percent contraction for 2023 that the IMF had forecast for Russia in October.
The United Kingdom is a striking exception to the IMF’s brighter outlook for 2023. It has forecast its economy will shrink 0.6 percent in 2023; in October, the IMF had expected growth of 0.3 percent. Higher interest rates and tighter government budgets are squeezing the British economy.
“These figures confirm we are not immune to the pressures hitting nearly all advanced economies,’’ Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said in response to the IMF forecast. “Short-term challenges should not obscure our long-term prospects — the UK outperformed many forecasts last year, and if we stick to our plan to halve inflation, the UK is still predicted to grow faster than Germany and Japan over the coming years.”
The IMF noted that the world economy still faces serious risks. They include the possibility that Russia’s war against Ukraine war will escalate, that China will suffer a sharp increase in Covid cases and that high-interest rates will cause a financial crisis in debt-laden countries.
Three weeks ago, the IMF’s sister agency, the World Bank, issued a more downbeat outlook for the global economy. The World Bank slashed its forecast for international growth this year by nearly half — to 1.7 percent — and warned that the global economy would come “perilously close’’ to recession. (AP)