The IMF's most recent forecasts came out earlier this week. They had some gloomy news with regrads to the UK economy, which they now expect to contract by 0.4% this year.
Back in April 2010 - around the time of the coalition government's Emergency Budget - the IMF were forecasting growth of a rather more positive 2.9% in 2012.
This fall in expected growth will, as several commentators have pointed out, make achieving the government's fiscal targets decidedly more challenging.
A similar story is true for the Euro area, where the IMF expects output to fall by 0.4% this year, and grow by less than 0.2% next year.
Of course, neither the downgrades for the UK nor the Eurozone are surprising, given the ongoing debt crisis in Europe.
But it's not just Europe where growth is expected to the weaker...
Growth expectations for the US this year and next have been downgraded too...
And there are also weaker forecasts for China...
... and indeed the whole world.
