16:03 - 9.10.2018

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October 9, Fineko/abc.az. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has decreased its global GDP growth forecast for 2018 and 2019 by 0.2 percentage points up to 3.7%, according to the World Economy Outlook (WEO) for October.

The Outlook says that last April the global stimulus of the global economy led to the forecast growth of 3.9% both this year and next year.

"However, taking into account the events that have occurred since then, this figure looks quite optimistic: instead, the economy will grow by 3.7%," said IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld, commenting on the forecast.

In July the IMF also expected the global economy to grow by 3.9%.

The IMF raised its forecast on Russia's GDP growth in 2019 by 0.3 percentage points up to 1.8%.

"Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Russia and Saudi Arabia are among the oil exporters that will benefit from higher oil prices," he emphasized.

As for U.S.’ GDP, the Fund lowered its forecast for next year. The forecast on U.S.’ GDP growth in 2018 is kept at the level of 2.9% and in 2019 reduced by 0.2 percentage points to 2.5%.

"Despite the current dynamics of demand, we’ve reduced our growth forecast for 2019 for the U.S. due to the recently adopted duties on a wide range of imports from China and China's response measures," Mr. Obstfeld said.