Global growth remains moderate, with uneven prospects across the main countries and regions. The April 2015 IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) indicated that the outlook for advanced economies is improving, while growth in emerging market and developing economies is projected to be lower, primarily reflecting weaker prospects for some large emerging market economies and oil-exporting countries.
Sub Saharan Africa is expected to register another year of strong growth, although countries with significant exposure to global markets will need to remain cautious to avert the risk of capital flow reversals that may arise from the anticipated changes in the US monetary policy stance.
Accordingly, the IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) April 2015 update has projected global growth at 3.5 per cent, in line with January 2015 forecasts and further to 3.7 per cent in 2016. The 2015 projection is however lower than the earlier forecast of 3.8 per cent in the October 2014 WEO.
The advanced economies are expected to expand at 2.4 per cent from 1.8 per cent in 2014. While Euro area (1.5% in 2015) and Japan (1.0% in 2015) are expected to pick up at a much faster pace relative to the January update, the growth in the US economy has been revised downwards to 3.1 per cent for 2015 and 2016.
