The International Monetary Fund (IMF)1 has predicted a challenging 2023, reducing growth expectations and forecasting economic contraction in a third of the world, in its latest World Economic Outlook entitled ‘Countering the Cost-of-Living Crisis.’
With the cost-of-living crisis ‘tightening financial conditions in most regions’, the outlook suggests that in order to restore price stability, monetary policy should stay the course and fiscal policy should aim to alleviate pressures ‘while maintaining a sufficiently tight stance.’
The global growth rate for 2023 has been revised down from previous expectations to 2.7%. This reflects ‘significant slowdowns’ for the largest economies as America’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted in the first half of 2022, followed by the Euro area’s contraction in the second half of last year, and prolonged COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns in China. Closer to home, the IMF predict growth of 3.6% in 2022 and 0.3% in 2023 for the UK.
1IMF, 2022
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