Financial Times (February 20)
Last year, “China’s global trade surplus in goods surpassed $1tn.” This year, the IMF is calling on China “to slash state support for industry as international concerns mount about overcapacity in the world’s second-largest economy.” The IMF estimates “China spent about 4 per cent of its GDP subsidising companies in critical sectors and said it should reduce that by 2 percentage points in the medium term.”
Tags: $1tn, China, Economy 4%, GDP, Global trade, Goods, IMF, Industry, International concerns, Overcapacity, State support, Subsidizing, Surplus
Barron’s (April 23)
“The global debt situation is raising alarms for the International Monetary Fund, which on Wednesday said ‘off-the-charts’ trade uncertainty was exacerbating a global debt load that it estimates crossed the $100 trillion level in 2024.” Current IMF projections call for “levels to rise further, with debt to global gross domestic product hitting 100% by the end of the decade,” but worldwide public debt “could soar to around 117% of GDP by 2027” in an extreme “adverse scenario,” though noting, “even that extreme scenario may be underestimating tail risk because trade and geoeconomic uncertainty has escalated, financial conditions have tightened, financial market volatility is visible and spending pressures have intensified.”
Tags: $100 trillion, 2024, Adverse scenario, Alarms, Exacerbating, GDP, Geoeconomic Financial conditions, Global debt, IMF, Market volatility, Off-the-charts, Spending pressures, Tail risk, Trade uncertainty, Underestimating
Financial Times (December 10)
“Global public debt is set to exceed $100tn by the end of this year” according to IMF estimates, “with total government borrowing set to approach 100 per cent of global GDP by the end of the decade.” This development led the outgoing chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements to warn that “rising government debt levels will cause turbulence in the global economy and financial markets unless political leaders start tackling them soon.”
Tags: $100tn, BIS, Borrowing, Chief economist, Debt levels, Economy, Financial markets, GDP, Global, Government, IMF, Political leaders, Public debt, Turbulence
FX Empire (October 26)
The IMF’s latest forecast counteracted any hope attached to China’s stimulus policy. “Markets reacted positively” when the People’s Bank of China “cut 1-year and 5-year loan prime rates (LPR) by 25 basis points” since “lower borrowing costs could drive credit demand and consumption.” In contrast, “the IMF’s latest growth projections… called for caution,” with 2024 growth forecast for China lowered from 5.0% to 4.8%.” Moreover, the IMF pointed out that “Beijing’s maneuvers may not be enough to support an economic recovery.”
Tags: 25 bp, Borrowing costs, Caution, China, Consumption, Credit demand, Economic recovery, Forecast, Growth projections, IMF, Markets, PBOC, Rates, Reacted, Stimulus
Financial Times (October 22)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that “greater global protectionism will endanger the world’s growth outlook… as a possible Donald Trump victory in next month’s US election raises the prospect of sharp tariff increases.” The IMF’s World Economic Outlook warns that “if higher tariffs hit a ‘sizeable swath’ of world trade by mid-2025, it would wipe 0.8 per cent from economic output next year and 1.3 per cent in 2026.” If, however, widespread tit-for-tat measures ensue, the results could be considerably more destructive.
Tags: 2025, Economic output, Election, Endanger, Global protectionism, Growth outlook, IMF, Tariffs, Tit-for-tat, Trump, U.S., Victory, Warned, World trade
Reuters (April 12)
“The International Monetary Fund may have just hammered the final nail in the coffin of a complete economic rebound. With downside risks dominating its outlook, the IMF’s estimates dash any remaining hopes of a full recovery from recent years’ shocks.”
Tags: Dash, Downside risks, Economic rebound, Estimates, Full recovery, IMF, Outlook, Shocks
Bloomberg (August 13)
“It seems like Japan’s big recovery is always a quarter away.” The economy may just barely manage growth in the second quarter, but the slow vaccination rollout and ongoing surges mean “the bounce in consumer spending that analysts had been forecasting will have to wait even longer.” Japan has earned “the dubious distinction of being the only G-7 economy to have its growth outlook for this year cut by the International Monetary Fund.”
Tags: Analysts, Bounce, Consumer spending, Economy, G-7, Growth, IMF, Japan, Outlook, Q2, Recovery, Surges, Vaccination
Bloomberg (October 17)
“The IMF estimates that the U.S.-China trade war has shaved 0.8 percentage points off global growth,” but “the costs of tariffs could prove higher than just an economic slowdown.” The largely neglected threat is that the “slowdown, combined with a decade of ultra-loose monetary policy, could cause a wave of defaults among corporations. This double whammy could threaten the world’s financial stability.”
Tags: China, Costs, Defaults Financial stability, Global growth, IMF, Monetary policy, Slowdown, Tariffs, Trade war, U.S.
Financial Times (October 12)
“Two years ago growth was accelerating in 75 per cent of the world, the IMF now expects it to decelerate in nearly 90 per cent of the global economy in 2019.”
Tags: Accelerating, Decelerate, Global economy, Growth, IMF, World
Bloomberg (August 28)
“India’s economic numbers have for some time looked better than the facts warranted, feeding an overconfidence in New Delhi about the country’s prospects. Thankfully, that’s begun to change. The Reserve Bank of India, the International Monetary Fund, investment banks and ratings agencies have all recently cut their estimates of 2019 growth sharply.” This is “best news in years… India’s government finally seems to recognize the scale of the problems it faces.”
Tags: Economic, Estimates, Government, IMF, India, Investment banks, Overconfidence, Ratings agencies, Reserve Bank of India, Scale
