The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday forecast world economic growth of 3.0 percent in 2019, its lowest level in a decade, amid the prolonged U.S.-China trade war, while leaving its growth forecast for Japan unchanged at 0.9 percent.
In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF cut its global economic growth projections for this year by 0.2 percentage point, marking the slowest pace of increase since 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, and for 2020 by 0.1 point to 3.4 percent, compared with its estimates in July.
"A notable feature of the sluggish growth in 2019 is the sharp and geographically broad-based slowdown in manufacturing and global trade," the Washington-based institution said in its report, adding that U.S.-China trade tensions, which have escalated into a tit-for-tat tariff war, have hurt business sentiment and confidence globally.