Countries’ economies according to IMF

It is not known why the International Monetary Fund (IMF) takes on itself to prepare and publish predictions of the expected economic growth rates of all countries of the world in a coming year.

The IMF predictions of past years did not prove to be accurate and yet it continues doing this kind of speculation every year.

Suffice it says that the IMF failed to predict the recent great world economic crisis.

In its most recent estimates, the fund provided a chart to show the expected growth rates of all countries in the world in 2017.

Believe it or not, the IMF is predicting that the highest economic growth rates will be registered by Libya, 13.5 per cent, followed by Yemen 12 per cent!

The fund justified these odd estimates by saying that Libya will recover its ability to export oil, and that the war in Yemen will come to an end.

Since the devastated economies of the two countries are currently at a bare minimum, any improvement will produce a high percentage rate of growth.

Perhaps Somalia will make it on the IMF honour list next year due to the same reasons.

The fund tells us that India will impose a comprehensive sales tax to replace many various taxes.

The Indian economy will grow at 7.5 per cent, according to the fund, it will be the highest worldwide, with the exception, of course, of Libya and Yemen.

The fund reports that China will concentrate efforts on growth and reduction of its dependence on exports and investments, and therefore will be able to achieve 6 per cent economic growth rate in 2017.

The fund believes that shortage of foreign exchange is the reason for low economic growth in Egypt; therefore, the loan of $12 billion agreed by the IMF will give rise to an economic growth rate in Egypt of not less than 3.5 per cent.

As far as Iran is concerned, the fund predicts that growth will hit 4 per cent. The reasons are: more production and export of petroleum, and partial lifting of international sanctions.

The fund believes that moderate leader Hassan Rouhani will be re-elected president in May 2017.

Among around 200 countries covered by the IMF prediction report for 2017, Jordan came 96^th, with a growth rate of 3 per cent, a relatively good percentage and not bad a position.

The fund notices that several years of disappointing growth rates caused the world public opinion to believe that this low economic performance became the new norm, and that it is not part of a cycle whereby economics will resume growth.

The fund thinks that governments and central banks are lost, they do not know what should be done to improve the situation, there is a lot of pessimism that is self fulfilling.

Even large-scale companies are becoming more conservative. They hesitate to spend on construction, equipment and electronic programmes.

The IMF is not lucky in its predictions, part of such predictions may come about by coincidence and the majority are off the mark.