IMF Revises Down Global Growth Forecast Despite Cheaper Oil

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised the global growth forecast at 3.5 percent for 2015, revised down by 0.3 percent, in its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), released on Tuesday.

"Even with the sharp oil price decline - a net positive for global growth - the world economic outlook is still subdued, weighed down by underlying weakness elsewhere" said in the IMF's latest WEO Update.

Global growth was forecast to rise moderately in 2015–16, from 3.3 percent in 2014 to 3.5 percent in 2015 and 3.7 percent in 2016, revised down by 0.3 percent for both years relative to the October 2014 World Economic Outlook (WEO).

Recent developments, affecting different countries in different ways, had shaped the global economy since the release of the October WEO, the report said. New factors supporting growth - lower oil prices, but also depreciation of euro and yen - were more than offset by persistent negative forces, including the lingering legacies of the crisis and lower potential growth in many countries.

"At the country level, the cross currents make for a complicated picture" said Olivier Blanchard, IMF Economic Counsellor and Director of Research. "It means good news for oil importers, bad news for oil exporters. Good news for commodity importers, bad news for exporters. Continuing struggles for the countries which show scars of the crisis, and not so for others. Good news for countries more linked to the euro and the yen, bad news for those more linked to the dollar."

(PHOTO) - Istanbul