Washington, DC – 22 April, 2025 – The IMF is lowering it’s projections for global growth to 2.8% this year due to trade and tariff uncertainty and risk to financial markets said in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report Tuesday (April 22, 2025) in Washington, DC. “The surge in policy uncertainty is a major driver of the economic outlook. If sustained, the increase in trade tensions and uncertainty will slow global growth significantly, reflecting this complexity. Our report presents a reference forecast which incorporates policy announcements up to April 4th by the U.S. and trading partners. Under this reference, forecast, global growth will reach 2.8% this year and 3% next year. A cumulative downgrade of about 0.8 percentage point relative to our January 2025,” said IMF Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas. But with geopolitical conflict, increasing trade tensions and elections looming and leadership changes in major economies around the world there is considerable uncertainty. “The global economy needs a clear, stable and predictable trading environment, one that addresses some of the longstanding gaps in international trading rules. Monetary policy will need to remain agile and respond by tightening where inflation pressures reemerge, while easing where weak demand dominates. Monetary policy credibility will be key, especially where inflation expectations meet the anchor and central bank independence remains a cornerstone,” said Gourinchas, head of the Fund’s Research Department. With all the uncertainty, it’s important for policy makers to make structural reforms and pursue multilateral cooperation that will boost growth the report said. And part of that is tackling inflation, so central banks must be in a position to make data-dependent decisions and protect their independence. “We’re just coming off the cost of living crisis, a surge in inflation rates to double digits that we haven’t seen in, more than a generation. So the critical thing is to make sure that inflation expectations remain anchored, that everyone remains convinced that central banks will do what is necessary to bring inflation back to central bank targets in an orderly manner,” finished Gourinchas To read the full report, https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO