By Tom Burnett CFA
On April 6, 2021, the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) issued its annual global growth forecast report. We will summarize the conclusions in the latest report.
Global GDP growth is now expected to grow by 6.0% this year, improving from the Covid-19 impact in 2020 when global GDP shrank by 3.3%. Growth of 4.4% is now projected for 2022. The latest forecasts are an improvement of 0.8% and 0.2% respectively compared to the October 2020 estimates.
The U.S. economy is projected to grow at 6.4% in 2021 and by 3.5% in 2022. These rates are a sharp reversal from the 3.5% decline in GDP suffered in the 2020 year. The latest 2021 estimate is an increase from the 3.1% rate projected in the October 2020 report.
The EU overall GDP fell 6.6% in 2020, but should recover by 4.4% in 2021 and by another 3.5% in 2022. The UK economy was particularly held back by Brexit uncertainties in 2020 and fell by 9.9% in the year. It is now expected to recover by 5.3% in 2021.
China was the star performer in 2020 with GDP growth of 2.3%. Growth in 2021 is projected at 8.4% with another 5.4% in 2022.