21 December 1997 - International [Imf]

The IMF publishes revised forecasts for real GDP growth in 1998 in the light of the Asian financial crisis. The world economy is now envisaged to grow by 3.5% compared with a prediction of 4.3% made in its World Economic Outlook published on 17 September. Real GDP growth in 1998 in the US is now forecast to be 0.2 percentage points lower at 2.4%, in Japan 1 percentage point lower at 1. 1 %, in the EU 0.1 percentage points lower at 2.7%. The greatest downgrade is for growth in South Korea, which is now predicted to be 2.5% compared with the previous forecast of 6.0%.