(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-02 23:06

The International Monetary Fund, or IMF, has cut its global growth forecast for 2008, reports said Wednesday.

Citing a document titled ''IMF Background Paper on the Update of the Global and Regional Outlook'', Bloomberg News reported that the IMF expects the global economy to grow 3.7% in 2008. In January, the IMF had announced a projection of 4.1%. The Bloomberg said it obtained the document at a meeting of Southeast Asian deputy finance ministers and central bankers in Da Nang, Vietnam.

The IMF is expected to publish its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook next week.

Some media reports also cited Financial Times Deutschland as giving the same news, though it was noted that the paper did not mention the source of the information.

On Tuesday, reports said citing the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit that the IMF slashed its US economic growth forecast to 0.5% from 1.5% and expects the worlds' largest economy to slip into recession. According to the document obtained by Bloomberg News, IMF expects the US economy to grow 0.6% in 2009.