Policy Mix and Oil Prices

imf: It estimated that the global economy grew 3.1 percent in 2016, the weakest since 2008-2009, owing to a challenging first half marked initially by turmoil in world financial markets, according to Global Times China. The projections for 2017 and 2018 remained unchanged relative to its forecast in October 2016. After a lackluster outturn in 2016, economic activity is projected to pick up in 2017 and 2018, especially in emerging market and developing economies, said the IMF in its update of the World Economic Outlook released on Monday. According to the IMF, this forecast incorporated a firming of oil prices and the assumption of a changing policy mix under a new administration in the United States and its global spillovers. The IMF projected that the emerging markets and developing economies will grow 4.5 percent in 2017 and 4.8 percent in 2018, higher than the 4.1 percent in 2016. Much of the better growth performance we expect this year and next stems from improvements in some large emerging market and low-income economies that in 2016 were exceptionally stressed, Maurice Obstfeld, the chief economist at the IMF, told a press conference on Monday. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.