Delegates arrive at the International Monetary Fund building during the first day of the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings in Washington on Tuesday, April 19.
AP
Delegates arrive at the International Monetary Fund building during the first day of the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings in Washington on Tuesday, April 19.

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, on Tuesday downgraded the outlook for the world economy this year and next, blaming Russia’s war in Ukraine for disrupting global commerce, pushing up oil prices, threatening food supplies, and increasing uncertainty already heightened by the coronavirus and its variants.

The 190-country lender cut its forecast for global growth to 3.6 per cent this year, a steep fall-off from 6.1 per cent last year and from the 4.4 per cent growth it had expected for 2022 back in January. It also said it expects the world economy to grow 3.6 per cent again next year, slightly slower than the 3.8 per cent it forecast in January.

The war – and the darkening outlook – came just as the global economy appeared to be shaking off the impact of the highly infectious omicron variant.

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20220420/citing-russias-war-imf-cuts-global-growth-forecast-36