Global Growth

While hardly surprising, the IMF cut its forecast of 2019 global economic growth to 3.3% from 3.5% in January; 3.7% in October. A key reason; world trade, which had been growing at 5%/year for a long time, slowed to 3.8% last year and is forecast to grow just 3.4% in 2020. Advanced economies will slide from 2.2% to 1.8%, emerging markets and developing economies will slow from 4.5% to 4.4%.