Chinanews.com, October 13th. According to Australia.com, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released the latest "World Economic Outlook Report" on the 12th. Affected by the epidemic, the global economy is expected to continue to recover in 2021 but the momentum is slowing down.

The IMF predicts that the economy will grow by 5.9% for the whole year, down 0.1 percentage point from the July forecast.

However, in this country’s assessment, Australia has experienced the greatest downgrade. The IMF has drastically lowered Australia’s economic growth rate in 2021 from the July forecast of 5.3% to 3.5%.

　　The report pointed out that the global economy is still recovering, but the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on the economies of all countries will be more lasting.

For Australia, the spread of the delta mutant strain has forced Victoria, New South Wales and the Territory to enter a state of lockdown. This has led the IMF to include Australia’s economic growth rate in 2021 in this World Economic Outlook Report. A sharp reduction to 3.5%, which is the largest drop in Australia so far in the report.

However, considering the low starting point and expected rebound, the IMF raised Australia's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in 2022 from 3% to 4.1%.

　　IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath (Gita Gopinath) said that the global recovery is still continuing, but due to the impact of the epidemic, the momentum of recovery has weakened.

Affected by factors such as differences in vaccine availability and policy support, the economic prospects of various economies have diverged. This is the main problem facing the global economic recovery.

The inflationary pressure brought about by the imbalance between supply and demand will also increase the risk of economic recovery and increase the difficulty of policy response.

She said: "Health risks abound, preventing the economy from returning to normal. Recent developments have made it clear that we are all on the same path. As long as the epidemic does not end everywhere, the economy will not be complete anywhere. Get better."

　　In response, Australian Finance Minister Josh Frydenberg said that the positive outlook for next year reiterated the potential strength and resilience of the Australian economy.

He said: "As NSW now reopens and Victoria will soon reopen, the national economy is being rekindled. The IMF believes that as restrictions are relaxed, the economy will rebound strongly."