The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has trimmed its forecasts for 2008 and 2009 world economic growth, largely due to a marked worsening in the outlook for the euro zone, a G20 finance official said on Monday. With a sharp US economic slowdown starting to spill out into other regions, the official said the IMF had downgraded its world growth forecast for this year to 3.9 per cent, down from 4.1 per cent in its World Economic Outlook last month.

It projects 2009 growth of 3.7 percent, down from 3.9 percent, in a note prepared for a meeting of deputy finance ministers of the Group of 20 (G20) emerging and industrialised economies to be held in Rio de Janeiro on August 30.

“Commodity prices will remain high and volatile... (and) market turbulence will go on through 2009,” said the official, adding that the IMF saw the world economy slowing further in the second half of the year. The Fund left unchanged its forecast for 2008 US growth at 1.3 per cent and shaved its outlook for 2009 growth to 0.7 per cent from 0.8 per cent.

3.7 pcRevised projection of growth in 2009 by the IMF

•4.1 pcThe growth projections made by IMF earlier in its report for 2009