Today the IMF released its “World Economic Outlook Update – Global Economic Slump Challenges Policies” report.

The following are some of the main points noted in this report:

1. The United Kingdom is going to have the worst economic downturn this year with a projected figure of -2.80%. The British economy will fare the worst among the advanced economies.

2. The emerging market economies of China and India will have the best growth at 6.7% and 5.1% respectively.

3.US economy will contract by 1.6% which is much better the UK economy.

4. Europe’s largest economy Germany will shrink by 2.5%.

5. The Canadian economy will fare better with a contraction of 1.2% – much lower than UK and the USA.

6. Overall the advanced economies are projected to contract by 2% while the emerging market economies are projected to grow by 3.3%. Like in the past few years this implies that the emerging markets are going to drive global growth in 2009.

7. Brazil may grow by 1.8% and the South East Asian economies of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. will grow by 2.7%.

Other key bullet points from this report are:”

• The world economy is facing a deep downturn.
• Financial markets remain under stress.
• A pernicious feedback loop between the real and financial sectors is taking its toll.
• Advanced economies are suffering their deepest recession since World War II.
• Emerging and developing economies are experiencing a serious slowdown.
• Anemic global growth has reversed the commodity price boom.
• Inflation pressures are subsiding.
• Global monetary and fiscal policies are providing substantial support.
• The uncertainty surrounding the outlook is unusually large.
• Strong and complementary policy efforts are needed to rekindle activity.”

You can read the full report by clicking here: IMF 2009 World Economic report.