Dominica: The International Monetary Fund is more optimistic about the global economy after seeing faster growth in the United States and a coordinated effort in Europe to address its debt crisis, according to a report on CARICOMnews Network.
The report represents improvement from January, when IMF officials warned that the global economic recovery was in danger of stalling.
Growth for Latin America and the Caribbean is projected 3.75 percent in 2012 and four percent in 2013.
Growth for the Caribbean is projected at 3.5 percent. High public debt and weak tourism and remittance flows continue to constrain the outlook for the Caribbean, the report said.
The CARICOMnew Network report stated that the global lending organisation said yesterday that the US economy should expand 2.1 percent this year.
Europe will likely shrink 0.3 percent and the world economy should grow 3.5 percent.
All three of the IMF's estimates are slightly better than its January forecasts.
The group praised European leaders for bulking up its bailout fund and taking other steps to address the crisis.
CARICOMnews Network reported that the 17 countries that use the euro currency should emerge from a shallow recession later this year, the IMF said.
The IMF said the crisis continues to loom as the biggest threat to the global economy.
"With the passing of the (European) crisis, and some good news about the US economy, some optimism has returned," IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said. "It should remain tempered."
The IMF's World Economic Outlook report comes as the 187-nation organisation and its sister lending institution, the World Bank, prepare to hold their spring meetings in Washington this week.
In the meantime, President of Dartmouth College in the United States, Jim Yong Kim, has been chosen to be the next president of the World Bank. Kim will remain Dartmouth president until June 30.
Kim, a surprise nominee of US President Barack Obama, was selected on Monday in a vote by the World Bank's 25-member executive board. He'll succeed Robert Zoellick, who's stepping down after a five-year term, CARICOMnews Network reported.
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