IMF: Major downturn ahead

From Bloomberg:

Global growth is headed for a "major downturn'' next year, as U.S. gross domestic product grinds close to a halt, the International Monetary Fund said in a staff report prepared for a Group of Seven meeting this week.

"The global economy is entering a major downturn,'' the fund said in the report, dated Oct. 4 and obtained by Bloomberg News. "Many advanced economies are now close to recession, while emerging economies are also slowing rapidly.''

Growth is slowing across the world as policy makers struggle to contain the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. ...

"All the advanced economies are stagnant or in mild recession now,'' John Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director, in a Bloomberg Television interview. The slowdown is removing "inflationary dangers,'' making it appropriate for central banks in some countries to respond with lower interest rates, he said.