International Monetary Fund
The coronavirus pandemic is pushing the global economy into its deepest recession in a century, cutting world output by three percent this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday.If the virus is contained and economies can begin operating again, 2021 should see a rebound of 5.8 percent, according to the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook. But the authors acknowledged the difficulty in making an accurate forecast amid the rapidly changing situation.With much of
Despite rising trade tensions and geopolitical risks, half of ASEAN’s member states are among the top drivers of global growth.The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook released last week painted a bleak future for the global economy which is in a “synchronised slowdown” and is anticipated to grow 3.0 percent this year – the weakest since the 2008 global financial crisis. It is also a 0.3 percentage point downgrade from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook in April a
Alarm bells are ringing across the globe as the United States (US)-China trade war continues to brew, and while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that a full-blown trade war would weaken the global economy, it may not be all bad news for ASEAN.China is ASEAN’s single largest trading partner, but the US is an important economic and strategic partner as well and its growth and spending power has been critical to driving worldwide trade. With increasing tariffs, goods pro
It was a one-two punch that’s turned the Malaysian ringgit into Asia’s worst performer this month.FTSE Russell said Monday it may drop Malaysian debt from the FTSE World Government Bond Index because of concern about market liquidity, roiling the nation’s currency and bonds on Tuesday.
Once again, an attack on India by a Pakistan-based terrorist group has raised the spectre of a major confrontation on the Indian subcontinent and fuelled international pressure for Pakistan to take concrete action against the 22 United Nations (UN)-designated terrorist entities it hosts. But this time, the pressure is compounded by fury over attacks by Pakistan-based terrorists on the country’s other key neighbours, Iran and Afghanistan.
As the world celebrates International Women’s Day today, ASEAN must realise that it needs to do more to encourage greater female labour force participation.With data from the World Bank showing that the participation of females above the age of 15 in ASEAN’s work force was around 61 percent as of last September, it is obvious that the region’s economy has huge potential to grow if more women join the workforce.With the male to female population ratio in ASEAN standing at 49.8 to 50.2 in 2017
China's massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) building push may create debt risks but is also responding to major infrastructure gaps in Asia and could boost global trade, World Bank officials say.The relatively upbeat assessment of a sometimes-controversial programme comes despite the debt crisis now faced by Pakistan, a recipient of massive Chinese loans.China launched the ambitious plan in 2013 under President Xi Jinping, seeking to link Asia, Europe and Africa with a network of port
Rising United States (US) interest rates, tanking emerging market currencies and a bitter US-China trade spat could push the world towards its next financial crisis but there is still time to avert disaster, global finance chiefs have said.The world economy is still growing but faces an "unprecedented" combination of threats, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cautioned at an annual meeting with the World Bank in Bali this week.Among them is growing protectionism championed by th
World leaders need to fix global trading systems instead of trying to tear them down, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde said Wednesday, in a rebuke to nationalist politicians pushing tariffs and protectionism.Her comments come as a trade spat between China and the United States (US) threatens economic growth around the world, with IMF experts warning of "new vulnerabilities" in the global system."We need to work together to de-escalate and resolve the cu
A decade after the guardians of the world economy united to save it from depression, the scope for such shock-and-awe policies has all but dried up.It was 10 years ago on Monday that the Federal Reserve (Fed) and five fellow central banks banded together for a rare coordinated interest rate cut.
The global economy has continued to strengthen in 2018 and this trend is expected to continue into 2019 as well. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that some 120 economies, which accounts for three quarters of the world’s GDP, “…has seen a pickup in growth in year-on-year terms in 2017”. Countries like Germany, Japan, Korea and the United States also saw higher growth in the third quarter of 2017 as opposed to the projection made in October 2016.
Twenty years after the Asian financial crisis, South Korea seems to have learned its lesson, having taken great pains to strengthen its economic resilience. But now the country is confronting a new set of internal and external risks, which may foreshadow another major economic crisis – or worse.
