The International Monetary Fund announced Wednesday a substantial downward revision to its forecasts for global economic growth in calendar 2003, with the projection for Japan lowered to 0.8 percent from 1.1 percent.
In its semiannual World Economic Outlook report, the IMF cut its projection of real world gross domestic product to 3.2 percent from the 3.7 percent growth estimate released in September.
The IMF attributed the revisions mainly to the sharp rise in oil prices due to the war in Iraq.
It said its latest projections are based on the assumption that the uncertainties surrounding the war will be broadly resolved in the near term and warned against downward risks stemming from a protracted war.