The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday raised its outlook for Argentina’s economic growth to 2.8% in 2017, up from 2.5% seen in October, while keeping its forecast for 2018 growth steady at 2.5%.
The Conservative Party’s plans for a “no deal” hard Brexit would plunge the UK into immediate recession, cost the British economy £400 billion and wipe 18% off GDP growth by 2030, a leading investment bank has warned.
The International Monetary Fund offered an encouraging outlook for Brazil´s growth in 2018 since the intense political uncertainty is yielding, monetary policy easing and progress on the government’s economic reform agenda should help the country pull out of its worst recession in a century.
Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay is planning to meet with IMF's Christine Lagarde at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss resuming formal ties with the international lender, according to a report published by Bloomberg.
UK interest rates have been held at their record low of 0.5% for another month by the Bank of England. On Thursday the Bank also kept the size of its bond-buying stimulus program unaltered at £375bn. No changes had been expected to either rates or the bond-buying measure, despite recent evidence that the UK economy is continuing to recover.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff responded to the International Monetary Fund concern over the country's fiscal situation, saying Brazil was fulfilling its responsibilities. IMF claimed that Brazil's competitiveness had eroded in recent months and downgraded the country's growth forecast from 4.25% to 3.5%.
The Argentine government official Consumer Prices Index climbed 0.8% in September over August and reached 7.4% in the first nine months of the year, according to the National Stats Institute, Indec.
Argentina’s growth has recovered because of an abundant crop but economic activity continues to be contained because of the exchange rate and other administrative controls, according to the IMF latest World Economic Outlook (WHE), Latam and Caribbean chapter released on Tuesday. The IMF statement refers to Argentina’s export duties and the so called ‘dollar clamp’ which bans even saving in US dollars.
IMF Managing Director ‘Madame (Christine) Lagarde’ had words of support for Argentina’s position in the dispute with ‘vulture’ (hedge) funds during an informal encounter with Argentine officials on the sidelines of the recent G20 summit in Russia.
A group of Argentine sovereign defaulted bond-holders have blasted the IMF for its announced intention of filing an amicus brief in support of Argentina before the US courts stating that “there is no role for direct involvement by the IMF in this matter” and any intervention by the IMF “favouring Argentina's request would also clearly violate the Fund's strict commitment to neutrality”.