IMF to
meet amid worsening stagnation and rising geo-economic tensions
By
Nick Beams
12 April 2016
12 April 2016
The
spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank will
convene in Washington later this week amid reports pointing to deepening
stagnation in the world economy and warnings that the negative interest
policies of major central banks are worsening the situation.
The
latest update from the Brookings Institution-Financial Times tracking
index said the world economy was characterised by “tepid growth” growth, with
world recovery “weak, uneven and in danger of stalling yet again.”
“A common
theme, from the best performing economies to the worst, is that the growth of
physical capital investment is sluggish, industrial production is negative or,
at most, weak, and business confidence is falling,” it said.
For some
time the US economy has been touted as a “bright spot,” with continuing
employment growth and rising consumer spending. However, the tracking index
update said “weak business confidence and minimal increases in investment,
despite large corporate profits and stashes of cash, portend a growth pattern
that is uneven and of questionable durability.”
Evidence
of that conclusion has come in the latest forecast from the Atlanta Federal
Reserve, which put US growth for the first quarter of this year at just 0.1
percent, compared to a previous estimate of 0.4 percent.
