In a quarterly update to the World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday published the latest economic growth projections for 2021 and 2022. The IMF projected the global economy to grow 5.9% in 2021, a downward revision from July 2021 update, and 4.9% in 2022. 

The international financial institution noted that although the global economic recovery is continuing, the fault lines opened up by coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic are looking “more persistent.” The rapid spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus and the threat of new variants, it said, have increased the uncertainty about how “quickly the pandemic can be overcome.”

IMF’s chief economist Gita Gopinath said in a blog post that the downward revision reflects “more difficult near-term prospects” for the advanced economy group while the pandemic has considerably darkened the prospects of the low-income developing country group.

“The dangerous divergence in economic prospects across countries remains a major concern,” she wrote.

The table shows GDP growth forecasts in percentages (Change from the July WEO update in parentheses):

2021 2022

World: 5.9 (-0.1) 4.9 (0.0)

Advanced economies: 5.2 (-0.4) 4.5 (0.1)

United States: 6.0 (-1.0) 5.2 (0.3)

Euro area: 5.0 (0.4) 4.3 (0.0)

Germany: 3.1 (-0.5) 4.6 (0.5)

France: 6.3 (0.5) 3.9 (-0.3)

Italy: 5.8 (0.9) 4.2 (0.0)

Spain: 5.7 (-0.5) 6.4 (0.6)

Japan: 2.4 (-0.4) 3.2 (0.2)

Britain: 6.8 (-0.2) 5.0 (0.2)

Canada: 5.7 (-0.6) 4.9 (0.4)

Emerging & developing economies: 6.4 (0.1) 5.1 (-0.1)

Russia 4.7 (0.3) 2.9 (-0.2)

Developing Asia 7.2 (-0.3) 6.3 (-0.1)

China 8.0 (-0.1) 5.6 (-0.1)

India 9.5 (0.0) 8.5 (0.0)

Latin America & Caribbean 6.3 (0.5) 3.0 (-0.2)

Brazil 5.2 (-0.1) 1.5 (-0.4)

Mexico 6.2 (-0.1) 4.0 (-0.2)

Middle East & Central Asia 4.1 (0.1) 4.1 (0.4)

Sub-Saharan Africa 3.7 (0.3) 3.8 (-0.3)

South Africa 5.0 (1.0) 2.2 (0.0)

World Trade Volume 9.7 (0.0) 6.7 (-0.3)