IMF Director of Asia and Pacific department Changyong Rhee indicated that US-China trade war is already having an impact on business confidence and investment in Asia. And there could be global growth forecasts downgrades in the next update in January. In particular, he said Japan and South Korea could be among the those hardest hit due to reliance on exports to China.
He noted that “Investment is much weaker than expected. My interpretation is that the confidence channel is already affecting the global economy, particularly Asian economies”. And, “we see global growth a little bit slower than we forecast in October.” He also added that “Uncertainty is so large … uncertainty means you have upside potential as well as downside risk. At this moment, we believe the downside risk is a little bit higher.”
Regarding China, Rhee said “They aren’t accelerating (stimulus) yet but taking the foot from the brake for the time being. But that doesn’t exclude the possibility that if the trade tension escalates, if growth goes down, they are ready to use stimulus.” But at the same time, IMF is concerned with China’s medium term goals including deleveraging And Rhee urged that “when they actually try to use stimulus, we hope they can use more fiscal policy rather than credit expansion.”
