IMF sees 6% world growth, warns developing nations falling behind

IMF sees 6% world growth, warns developing nations falling behind

KUWAIT: The global economy will expand by six percent this year, but disparities between nations are widening as advanced economies accelerate while developing countries fall behind, the IMF said yesterday. While the forecast for global growth is unchanged from the previous estimate in April, the United States is projected to see faster seven percent growth thanks to massive government spending and widespread COVID-19 vaccinations, while the IMF slashed the forecast for India, which is facing a resurgence of infections.

"Vaccine access has emerged as the principal fault line along which the global recovery splits into two blocs," the International Monetary Fund said in its updated World Economic Outlook, warning of the danger to the economy if new virus variants are allowed to take hold. The recovery "is not assured even in countries where infections are currently very low so long as the virus circulates elsewhere," the report said. And while the recent inflation spike is the result of the unprecedented and uneven turnaround from the pandemic and should prove temporary, the IMF raised the possibility that price increases could become "persistent."

The Washington-based crisis lender once again stressed that "the immediate priority is to deploy vaccines equitably worldwide." Advanced nations have vaccinated