(Bloomberg) – Corporate executives joined the International Monetary Fund in warning the global economy is slowing faster than expected, establishing a downbeat tone for this week's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Hours after the IMF cut its forecasts for the world economy this year and next, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP released a survey showing 30% of business leaders expect the expansion to weaken, about six times the number of a year ago.
"The world economy is growing more slowly than expected, and risks are rising," IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, the home of the conference of policy makers, investors and executives which begins Tuesday.
The outlooks were published the same day China revealed the slowest expansion since 2009 last quarter and come at a time when investors are questioning the sustainability of demand as it's buffeted by the trade war and other political flash points such as Brexit and the US government shutdown.
In executing its second downgrade in three months, the IMF predicted global growth of 3.5% this year, beneath the 3.7% expected in October and the rate in 2018. Among major economies, the deepest revision was for Germany, which the IMF now sees expanding 1.3% this year, down 0.6 percentage point from October.
The unease is spreading to the board room with North American executives especially worried, according to PWC. The number of them declaring themselves optimistic fell to 37% from 63% last year.