Percentage Points: Country-by-Country Breakdown and Half-Yearly World

percentage points: In an update to its half-yearly World Economic Outlook, the IMF said it expected global growth to be 0.1 percentage points lower in both 2019 and 2020 than it envisaged in April, at 3.2% and 3.5% respectively, according to The Guardian. The Fund's country-by-country breakdown upgraded its forecast of US growth this year from 2.3% to 2.6% but downgraded China from 6.3% to 6.2%. In China, the negative effects of escalating tariffs and weakening external demand have added pressure to an economy already in the midst of a structural slowdown and needed regulatory strengthening to rein in high dependence on debt. The Washington-based IMF said the outlook was gloomier than it envisaged three months ago due to the tit-for-tat tariff war between the world's two biggest economies, Brexit uncertainty and the impact of sanctions against Iran on oil prices. Emerging and developing economies as a whole are now expected to grow by 4.1% this year a cut of 0.3 points from April with a slower pace of expansion pencilled in for Russia, India, Brazil and Mexico. Shares rose in Asia and Europe after it was reported that the US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and the treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin will meet China's vice-premier, Liu He, next week. The forecasts came amid growing optimism that the US and China could soon settle their differences. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.