The International Monetary Fund, IMF, is downgrading its forecast for the world economy this year, citing the spread of COVID-19’s omicron variant, higher energy prices, an uptick in inflation and a deteriorating outlook for the world’s two biggest economies – the United States and China.

The 190-country lending agency now forecasts the global economy will expand 4.4 per cent in 2022. That’s down from an estimated 5.9 per cent last year and from the 4.9 per cent the IMF was forecasting for 2022 back in October.

The IMF slashed the growth forecast for the United States – world’s largest economy – to 4.0 per cent from the 5.2 per cent it predicted in October. The agency no longer expects any economic stimulus from President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better social policy bill, which has stalled in Congress.

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20220126/amid-omicron-and-inflation-imf-cuts-world-growth-forecasts