IMF lowers global economic outlook

The International Monetary Fund lowered its expectations for global economic growth in 2015, citing recent economic weakness in the United States.

Amid significant economic uncertainty in Greece and China, the organization downgraded global growth expectations to 3.3 percent in 2015, down 0.2 percent from its April forecast.

{mosads}But while Greece struggles to stay in the euro zone and China’s stock market is in a freefall, the IMF pointed to the United States as a major reason for Thursday’s downgrade. The U.S. economy actually shrank in the first quarter, as the nation was hit by harsh winter weather, disrupted ports along the West Coat due a labor dispute, and a strong dollar that hampered exporters.

The surprising weakness from the U.S. is a major reason for the lowered expectations, although the IMF insisted it expects the U.S. to spring back from that setback and continue its economic recovery.

“It clearly raised all kinds of issues, [but] the fundamentals of the U.S. are strong and the recovery is very much in trend,” said Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s research director.

The IMF kept is expectations for global growth in 2016 unchanged at 3.8 percent.