Us Trade War with China and Europe will Affect Global Growth

The International Monetary Fund warns that between the U.S. and trading partners have started to hurt economic activity worldwide and no one will emerge victorious, according to European industrialists.
The IMF says the global economy is now expected to grow at 3.7 percent this year and next year  down 0.2 percentage points from an earlier forecast, according to the fund’s latest World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.
The more pessimistic forecast comes as the clash between Washington and Beijing threatens to keep escalating and cause damage in other countries.
Germany was expected to grow this year and next at an annual rate above 2% but IMF officials judged that the impact of trade tariffs would mean Berlin should expect to reach no more than 1.9% in each of the next two years.
The UK’s outlook for next year remains at 1.5% but the previous forecast for a 1.3% growth rate this year was cut to 1.1% after Brexit uncertainty weighed more heavily on trade and investment.
France was the other major eurozone country predicted to suffer falls in growth in 2018-19.
IMF forecasts “An intensification of trade tensions, and the associated rise in policy uncertainty, could dent business and financial market sentiment, trigger financial market volatility, and slow investment and trade.”
“When you have the world’s two largest economies at odds, that’s a situation where everyone suffers,” Maurice Obstfeld, the IMF’s chief economist, said at a media briefing about the fund’s latest World Economic Outlook.
>Juthy Saha