Daily Times

A representative for the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that the World Economic Outlook will be released on Jan. 25, a week later than anticipated, to take into account the latest COVID-19 developments, amid concerns that another downgrade is on the way.

“On January 25, the World Economic Outlook update will be released to allow our teams to incorporate the most recent events connected to the COVID-19 epidemic into the economic estimates,” a spokesman stated.

Last month, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice informed reporters that the next update would be on Jan. 19.

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva last month told the Reuters Next conference that the IMF was likely to further downgrade its global economic growth projections in January to reflect the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

In October, the IMF had forecast global economic growth of 5.9% in 2021 and 4.9% this year, while underscoring the uncertainty posed by the new coronavirus variants.

The coronavirus has killed nearly 5.8 million people worldwide over the past two years.

Economists expect the IMF to cut its economic forecast for the United States, the world’s largest economy, given the rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant, as well as the failure of Congress to pass U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion social and climate spending package.

In October, it had already slashed its forecast for U.S. Gross Domestic Product growth in 2021 by a full percentage point to 6%, citing supply chain disruptions and a labour crunch, while forecasting growth of 5.2% in 2022.

Since then, the pandemic has resurfaced, deepening congressional tensions.

According to a Reuters analysis, the United States established a global record of nearly 1 million new coronavirus infections on Monday, and its daily average has totalled 486,000 cases over the last week, a pace higher than any other country.