IIF lowers 2020 global economic growth forecasts

The Institute of International Finance (IIF) downgraded its economic growth forecast for the United States and China on Thursday, while warning that world growth could reach its weakest since the global financial crisis, The New York Times reported.

Citing the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, the IIF lowered its forecast for US growth this year to 1.3%, down from 2% previously, with the epicenter of weakness in the second quarter, and China to just shy of 4% from 5.9% previously.

Global growth in 2020 could conceivably approach 1%, far below the 2.6% expansion in 2019 and the weakest since the financial crisis, the IIF said.

"The range of potential outcomes is large and depends on the spread of the virus and the resulting economic fall-out, all of which are highly uncertain at this stage," IIF economists said in a report.