The International Monetary Fund predicts a ‘soft landing’ scenario in 2024 for the global economy.

The Fund’s spokesperson however warned that leaders should be preparing for future shocks and challenges.

Julie Kozack spoke to journalists on Thursday from Washington DC.

“We’ve had a relatively resilient global economy so far. We expect that resilience to continue into 2024,” Kozack said.

“At the same time, inflation is coming down. Labor markets continue to be, uh, resilient. Of course, the news is not all good because this resilience with growth, um, around hovering around 3 percent both last year and over the expected over the medium-term, that’s much lower than previous global average growth rates, which were about 3.8 percent. So we do have work to do to lift global growth, especially over the medium term.”

Africa is projected to be the second-fastest-growing economic region in the world.

The Fund’s executive board has completed the third review of Mozambique’s three-year loan program, allowing for an immediate disbursement to Maputo of about $60.7 million.

The fund’s executives met with representatives of Egypt to discuss reforms as the war rages in Gaza, on Egypt’s eastern border.

“Our team is in discussions with the authorities on a set of policies that would support completion of the first and second reviews of the EFF that Egypt has with the Fund. This strong engagement that we’ve had with the authorities has helped achieve important progress in the discussions, and we do expect those discussions to continue in the coming weeks to operationalize the key policy priorities,” Kozack revealed.

The Fund will update its global growth forecast and unveil the World Economic Outlook report in Johannesburg on January 30.

Additional sources • IMF – Mail & Guardian

Source: AfricaNews, 12th January 2024