IMF raises outlook for global, US economies

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is slightly more optimistic about the global and US economies this year than it was three months ago. In an updated outlook, the global lending organisation forecasts that the world economy will grow 3.7 per cent in 2014 and that the US economy will grow 2.8 per cent. The global forecast is 0.1 percentage point higher and the US forecast 0.2 point higher than in the IMF's October forecast. After a sluggish first six months of the year, global economic growth amounted to about 3 per cent in 2013. The US economy is estimated to have grown less than 2 per cent last year. The IMF says the global economy picked up in the second half of 2013, and it expects that momentum to carry over into 2014, according to a news agency.