Saudi Economy Will Post 4% Growth in 2024: IMF Forecast
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its estimates for the growth of Saudi Arabia’s economy (gross domestic product -GDP) to four percent in 2024.
In its latest World Economic Outlook Report, released on Tuesday, IMF reduced its forecast for Saudi economic growth in 2023 to 0.8 percent from 1.1 percent.
According to the latest projections of the Fund, the world economy is limping along, not sprinting.
The world economic growth will slow from 3.5 percent in 2022 to 3 percent this year and 2.9 percent next year, a 0.1 percentage point downgrade for 2024, as per its previous estimate issued in July.
The IMF indicated a gradual slowdown in global inflation from 8.7 percent in 2022 to 6.9 percent this year and then to 5.8 percent in 2024 due to the tightening of monetary policy and the decline in international commodity prices.
There are better possibilities for central banks to be able to rein in inflation without pushing the global economy into recession.
The report noted that the global economy continued to recover from COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and last year’s energy crisis, but that diverging growth trends meant mediocre medium-term prospects.
It stressed that despite the improvement in global economic activity this year, it is still generally lower than the rates before the coronavirus pandemic, especially in emerging markets and developing countries.
The IMF attributed this to several reasons, including the Russian war in Ukraine, which is still affecting global markets, the geopolitical division in the world, and the long-term effects of the pandemic on the global economy.
