Finance

Finance

IMF: Global economy will shrink by 0.6% this year

18 March 2009 10:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. The International Monetary Fund expects the global economy to contract 0.6 percent this year, according to forecasts provided on Tuesday by an IMF official, Reuters reported. Teresa Ter-Minassian, an adviser to IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, told reporters the figure was likely to be released shortly by the IMF. It compares with the IMF’s last official forecast for the global economy, released in January, which pointed to global growth of 0.5 percent. The U.S. economy is seen shrinking 2.6 percent this year, compared with a January forecast of a 1.6 percent contraction. The euro zone economy is expected to contract 3.2 percent, down from January’s forecast of a 2 percent decline.
Japan’s economy was seen diving 5 percent this year, sharply down from the last forecast of a 2.6 percent contraction.