Trade war to weigh on global growth: IMF
The IMF warned Thursday that the escalating US-China trade war will “jeopardize” 2019 global growth, undermining confidence and raising prices for consumers.
“Consumers in the US and China are unequivocally the losers from trade tensions,” Gita Gopinath, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist, said in a blog post.
She and her co-authors directly refuted President Donald Trump’s claim that the tariffs are paid by China and provide a windfall for the US treasury, saying “tariff revenue collected has been borne almost entirely by US importers.” The economic damage will be even worse if Trump goes through with the threat to impose steep tariffs on all goods imported from China, as that “will subtract about one-third of a percentage point of global GDP in the short term,” she said.
Optimism was high earlier this month that a deal was within striking distance but tensions erupted after Trump accused Beijing of backtracking on its commitments made over the year of negotiations.
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