Washington: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed that global economic output is expected to slow down in the coming months, largely due to the impact of high tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
According to Qatar News Agency, with tariffs on goods entering the world’s largest economy reaching their highest levels in a century, the IMF forecasts that global growth will slow to 2.8 percent in 2025, down from 3.3 percent in 2024. This marks the weakest performance since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IMF also projects that US GDP growth will decline by a full percentage point, down to 1.8 percent in 2025 from 2.8 percent last year. This is accompanied by notable upward revisions in inflation due to the rising cost of imports.
China is expected to be one of the most heavily affected by the fallout. The IMF has cut its growth forecast for China to 4 percent for both this year and next, under the pressure of steep tariffs, amounting to 145 percent, imposed by the US on imports from the world’s largest goods producer.
In response, China has imposed 125 percent tariffs on US goods, effectively resulting in a trade ban between the world’s two largest economies.