IMF "Maintains 6.0% Global Growth Rate This Year... Pandemic End Difficult Next Year"

IMF Managing Director Georgieva Mentions
Concerns Over Economic Impact Due to Vaccine Rollout Delays and Delta Variant Spread

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has decided to maintain the global economic growth rate at 6% this year, but growth rates will vary by country due to delays in COVID-19 vaccination and the spread of the Delta variant.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, mentioned on the 21st (local time) during an online event sponsored by the Peterson Institute for International Economics that the global economic growth rate will be maintained this year. The IMF is scheduled to revise and announce the global economic growth forecast on the 27th.

In its World Economic Outlook report released in January, the IMF projected a growth rate of 5.5% for this year, which was then revised upward to 6.0% in April. This reflected the expanded vaccine distribution and economic reopening.

Managing Director Georgieva stated, "Some countries are expected to grow faster, while others will grow more slowly," and added, "The composition has changed between April and July," indicating that although the overall growth forecast remains the same, figures will differ by region and country.

Accordingly, considering COVID-19 vaccination progress, the spread of the Delta variant, and each country's fiscal capacity, some countries are expected to see increased growth forecasts, while others may experience declines.

She particularly identified the situation in developing countries with vaccine shortages and the spread of the Delta variant as threat factors delaying economic recovery.

This situation was also confirmed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) the day before, which downgraded the growth forecast for 46 developing countries in Asia (excluding Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) for this year. The ADB lowered the average growth rate forecast for these 46 developing countries in Asia to 7.2%, down from the April forecast of 7.3%. For South Korea, the forecast was raised by 0.5 percentage points from the April projection of 3.5% to 4.0% growth.

Managing Director Georgieva warned that if the vaccination pace does not accelerate, economic recovery will be delayed, and at the current rate, the goal of ending the pandemic by the end of next year will not be achieved.

She also mentioned that the joint goal of the IMF and the World Bank to provide $50 billion to countries for expanding vaccination may need to be revised upward depending on the necessity of booster shot administration.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.