I don’t listen to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank when they gush about how great the global economy is doing… which is almost always. I do, however, pay careful attention whenever their near-perpetual optimism turns negative. And that’s what is happening right now. The IMF lowered its 2016 global growth forecast for both 2016 and 2017 by 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.
They worry, in particular, about the drop in oil prices, a sharp economic slowdown in China, rumblings about trade wars and tariffs, disease epidemics, refugees crises, and military conflict. The World Bank is even more pessimistic: They lowered their 2016 global GDP forecast from 2.9% to 2.5%. Those are some pretty somber forecasts that should not be ignored. But the handwriting on the wall is pretty obvious—the global economy is losing steam fast. READ MORE
