IMF raises 2023 outlook, warns of slow growth

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slightly upgraded its outlook for world growth this year on the back of resilient service sector activity in the first quarter and a strong labour market, the lender said on Tuesday. But despite the mildly better economic forecast, growth is expected to slow to three per cent in 2023 and then stay there, held down by weak growth among the world’s advanced economies, the IMF announced in its latest report. “The global economy continues to gradually recover from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it is not yet out of the woods,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said during a press conference. The growth forecast for this year was raised by 0.2 percentage points from the IMF’s last estimate in April, putting the world economy on track for 3pc growth in both 2023 and 2024. This is down from growth of 6.3pc in 2021, and 3.5pc last year, the IMF announced in its update to the World Economic Outlook (WEO).