AFP, Washington :
The IMF on Tuesday raised its 2017 economic forecast for the United States but said the coming years would likely see sluggish gains in the absence of more growth-oriented policy from Washington.
Citing strong market confidence in the world’s largest economy, the International Monetary Fund said US GDP was now expected to grow by 2.2 percent this year, a tenth of a percentage point higher than a forecast published in July.
The US economy will also likely expand by an even faster 2.3 percent in 2018, up two tenths from July’s estimate, according to the global crisis lender.
The rosier figures, released with the latest update to the IMF’s semiannual World Economic Outlook, were lifted in part by a recovery in the US energy sector and growing consumer spending and business investments earlier in the year.
But the IMF said that-absent reforms and stimulus and with a Republican economic agenda suffering lengthy delays in Congress-the US was unlikely to sustain the faster pace of growth.
“Over a longer horizon, US growth is expected to moderate,” the report said, noting that the current estimates assumed no change in US fiscal policies.
Higher IMF growth estimates for the US published in April-with growth forecast to hit 2.5 percent by 2018 — assumed Republican leaders in Washington would overhaul the US tax code.
The IMF on Tuesday raised its 2017 economic forecast for the United States but said the coming years would likely see sluggish gains in the absence of more growth-oriented policy from Washington.
Citing strong market confidence in the world’s largest economy, the International Monetary Fund said US GDP was now expected to grow by 2.2 percent this year, a tenth of a percentage point higher than a forecast published in July.
The US economy will also likely expand by an even faster 2.3 percent in 2018, up two tenths from July’s estimate, according to the global crisis lender.
The rosier figures, released with the latest update to the IMF’s semiannual World Economic Outlook, were lifted in part by a recovery in the US energy sector and growing consumer spending and business investments earlier in the year.
But the IMF said that-absent reforms and stimulus and with a Republican economic agenda suffering lengthy delays in Congress-the US was unlikely to sustain the faster pace of growth.
“Over a longer horizon, US growth is expected to moderate,” the report said, noting that the current estimates assumed no change in US fiscal policies.
Higher IMF growth estimates for the US published in April-with growth forecast to hit 2.5 percent by 2018 — assumed Republican leaders in Washington would overhaul the US tax code.
