IMF: Low oil prices can raise 2015 global growth by 0.3-0.7%

Oil prices will remain low in the future which will help boost the global economy next year between 0.3 and 0.7 percent more than the 3.8 percent planned, two economists from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have said in a report.

“Oil prices have plunged recently, affecting everyone: producers, exporters, governments, and consumers. Overall, we see this as a shot in the arm for the global economy,” said economists Rabah Arezki and Olivier Blanchard in the report released Monday.

According to the two signatories of the document, the situation may cause “a gain for world GDP between 0.3 and 0.7 percent in 2015”.

With current oil prices, which have fallen nearly 50 percent since June and are at around $55 per barrel levels, the IMF experts expect that the levels of crude production could be lowered, but only moderately, by less than 4 percent in 2015.

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The report also indicates how the maintenance of low oil prices will affect the two major world economies, the US and China.

In the US, the IMF economists expect a boost in GDP by 0.2 to 0.5 percent on the basis of the 3.1 percent increase that the multilateral institution forecast in October for the country.

In China, the lowering of oil prices could contribute to GDP progress between 0.4 and 0.7 percent on the basis of the 7.1 percent increase predicted in October by the IMF

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