The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday issued a rosier outlook for the global economy in 2011, but said wealthy countries still faced high unemployment while some major emerging powers risked overheating, DPA reported.
The global crisis lender stepped up pressure on developing powers like China to raise interest rates and stop holding down the value of their currencies, warning that fast-growing economies risked building up the same bubbles that plunged the rich world into turmoil in 2008.
In updates to its economic and financial forecasts presented in Johannesburg, South Africa, the IMF predicted global growth of 4.4 per cent in 2011 - up 0.2 percentage points from what it believed in October - and 4.5 per cent in 2012.
The forecast was more optimistic than many other international organizations. The United Nations and World Bank issued predictions in the range of 3.1-3.3 per cent for global growth this year.
This year's figures mark a slowdown from 2010, when the world bounced back from a deep recession and grew at a pace of 5 per cent, according to the IMF. The global economy shrank 0.6 per cent in 2009.