The IMF, in the 21 January update to its flagship Global Economic Outlook, cut its forecast for 2019 global economic growth from 3.7% to 3.5%. The US saw a 0.1 percentage point downgrade to 2.0%, whilst the IMF’s China forecast was left unchanged at 6.2%. This, nevertheless would be the lowest in almost 30 years, with the freshly-released 2018 Chinese official growth figure of 6.6% already the lowest since 1990; some unofficial estimates peg Chinese growth significantly lower.
Key headwinds facing the Chinese economy, the key driver of global oil demand over the past decade, include the potential escalation of an on-off trade war with the US. (CONTINUED - 177 WORDS)