IMF raises global growth forecast, warns against protectionism

IMF forecasted global economy would grow 3.5% in 2017, up from its previous forecast of 3.4% in Jan

The International Monetary Fund raised its 2017 global growth forecast on Tuesday due to manufacturing and trade gains in Europe, Japan and China, but warned that protectionist policies threaten to choke a broad-based recovery.

The IMF, whose spring meetings with the World Bank get underway in Washington this week, forecast that the global economy would grow 3.5 per cent in 2017, up from its previous forecast of 3.4 per cent in January.

In its latest World Economic Outlook, the Fund said that chronically weak advanced economies are expected to benefit from a cyclical recovery in global manufacturing and trade that started to