The International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook

The International Monetary Fund (or IMF) publishes its World Economic Outlook (or WEO) report on a bi-annual basis, in April and September/October. The WEO update, published in January and July every year, reports key projections from the IMF. In its July 24 update, the IMF confirmed that global growth continues to remain in line with the April 2017 WEO projections. The IMF projected that global output could grow by 3.5% in 2017 and 3.6% in 2018.

Although overall growth estimates are unchanged, there have been some revisions to contributions by member countries. Growth projections have been downgraded for the United States (VTI) and the United Kingdom (EWU), while projections for Japan (EWJ), the Euro area (VGK), and China (FXI) have been upgraded. Inflation projections from around the world have been lowered, and the IMF said that inflation (TIP) levels have remained subdued in developed and developing economies (VWO). The IMF said that risks to global growth remain broadly balanced in the near term.

In this series, we’ll analyze the IMF’s WEO update, and discuss why the IMF has changed its projections from April 2017.