The International Monetary Fund (IMF) would lower
its assessment of the world economy in 2012, Managing Director
Christine Lagarde said Friday.
The global growth outlook "has become more worrisome," Lagarde
said in Tokyo.
"Many indicators of economic activity - investment, employment,
manufacturing - have deteriorated and not just in Europe or the
United States," she said. "Also in key emerging markets: Brazil,
China, India."
The announcement would be made in 10 days, she said.
In April, the IMF revised upwards its forecast to 3.5 per cent
from the 3.3 per cent it projected in January.
Lagarde said advanced economies must deal with the issue of public
debt but warned such reductions should not be so deep as to undermine
economic turnarounds. She said she was particularly concerned about
the US.
The US, she said, "must do all it can to avoid driving over what
some have described as the 'fiscal cliff.'"
"This refers to the expiring tax cuts and automatic spending
reductions that are legislated to begin next year and which would
abruptly shrink the budget by some 4 per cent," she said. "This would
jeopardize not only the US recovery but the global recovery."
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told Lagarde during her
visit that his country is concerned about the "one-sided appreciation
of the yen," which has negatively affected Japan's nascent economic
recovery from last year's earthquake and tsunami.
Lagarde is visiting Tokyo as part of preparations for the general
meetings of the IMF and World Bank there in October.
