This archive report was first published on 26 January 2022.
Published on January 26, 2022, the IMF sharply downgraded its forecasts for the two biggest global economies – the US and China – citing high energy prices and new Covid curbs among its reasons.
The IMF now expects global growth to go from 5.9% in 2021 to 4.4% in 2022, half a percentage point lower for this year than in its last prediction in October 2021.
According to the IMF report, the global economy enters 2022 in a weaker position than previously expected, with rising energy prices and supply disruptions resulting in higher and more broad-based inflation than anticipated.
The IMF predicted that the higher levels of inflation currently seen in the global economy would go on for longer than it anticipated in its last forecast, persisting for most of 2022.
US economic growth for this year was downgraded by the IMF from 5.2% to 4% after it removed the effects of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better fiscal policy package from its calculations.
China's forecast for 2022 was cut from 5.6% to 4.8%, with the IMF citing disruption in the housing sector as a major factor in the slowdown.
The IMF also downgraded its growth expectations for Brazil and Mexico, with Brazil now expected to grow by just 0.3% in 2022, down from the previous forecast of 1.5%.
