The IMF just took a bucket of bath-salts to world economies as it slashes growth expectations for every major global economy (and emerging nations suffer too). Noting that Q1's upward surprise was "partly due to temporary factors", they reduce 2012's overall global growth to 3.5% adding that developments during the second quarter have been worse. Job creation has been hampered - with unemployment high in many advanced economies, especially among the young in the euro area periphery; but incoming data from the US also suggests less robust growth than forecast previously. While distortions to seasonal adjustment and payback from the unusually mild winter explain some of the softening, there also seems to be an underlying loss of momentum. Growth momentum has also slowed in various emerging market economies, notably Brazil, China, and India. This partly reflects a weaker external environment, but domestic demand has also decelerated sharply in response to capacity constraints. The baseline projections in this WEO Update incorporate weaker growth through much of the second half of 2012 in both advanced and key emerging market economies, reflecting the setbacks to the global recovery. Downside risks to this weaker global outlook continue to loom large. The most immediate risk is still that delayed or insufficient policy action will further escalate the euro area crisis. How long before those Q4 hockey-stick earnings forecasts get reduced?
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