WASHINGTON, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday kept its growth forecasts for the world economy unchanged for this year and next year, but warned that a potential broad-based trade conflict threatens to derail global growth prematurely.
In its newly-released World Economic Outlook, the IMF said the global economy would grow 3.9 percent in 2018 and 2019, unchanged from its previous forecast in January.
The global recovery is supported by "strong momentum, favorable market sentiment, accommodative financial conditions, and the domestic and international repercussions of expansionary fiscal policy in the United States," the IMF said.
Maurice Obstfeld, economic counsellor and director of research at the IMF, said that the world economy continues to show broad-based momentum, but the prospect of a similarly broad-based conflict over trade presents a jarring picture.
"The prospect of trade restrictions and counter-restrictions threatens to undermine confidence and derail global growth prematurely," Obstfeld said at a press conference Tuesday.
