The global economy has held up in the face of an extraordinary succession of crises, noted the IMF in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) this week. Citing the Covid-19 pandemic, Ukraine war and Middle East conflict, the report says “individually, each of these major developments would have been considered unlikely. Their confluence over such a short period of time is even more extraordinary. Yet, despite this barrage of shocks, the global economy has held up.”
Remarkably amid these strains, the IMF sees healthy global economic growth of 3.1% this year, an upwards revision of 0.1 percentage points from July. Despite the Middle East conflict persisting and metastasizing, with a major new front opening up in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the IMF is now more optimistic on global growth than in July. (CONTINUED - 896 WORDS)
