CRI听力:IMF Cuts Global Growth Forecast for 2014

The International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for global economic growth this year, from 3.7 percent down to 3.4 percent.

CRI's Su Yi has more.

IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard says global growth is likely to be weaker than first anticipated a few months ago.

"The recovery continues but it remains a weak recovery. Indeed a bit weaker than we had forecast in April."

Blanchard is attributing the downgrade to a weak first quarter, particularly in the United States, and a less optimistic outlook for several emerging markets.

"What I want to insist on is that this downward revision makes things look worse than they really are. To a large extent, it reflects something that has already happened, which is the negative growth rate in the first quarter in the US. But that's the past, to a large extent, looking forward from here, things look better."

The IMF has cut its US growth forecast for this year to 1.7 percent, down from its previous prediction of 2 percent.

The US economy contracted nearly 3-percent in the first quarter, dragged down by a weak housing market, a slower pace of restocking by businesses and lower exports, on top of unseasonable weather.

The IMF also estimates emerging markets will grow by 4.6 percent this year, which is 0.2 percent lower than its previous estimate.

The IMF is now predicting China's economy is expected to slow to 7.4 percent through this year.

But the fund still expects the growth of the world's economy to accelerate a bit to 4 percent in 2015.

The IMF suggests that governments push ahead with economic reforms to increase their growth potential.

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.