According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global economy has been growing slowly during the global financial crisis. Experts see the reasons for this in trade conflicts and geopolitical risks.

According to the IMF, the global economy will grow by 3% in 2019. This is the worst figure since the 2008-2009 crisis. The conclusions are of the report "Prospects for the development of the global economy: a global downturn, growth in trade barriers", published by the IMF on Tuesday 15 October.

The global economy expects growth of 3.4 percent in 2020, the document said. At the same time, the IMF predicts a slowdown in most global economies. Thus, according to the report, the economy of the European Union (EU) will grow by only 1.2% in 2019 and 1.4% in the next year. Experts say the reasons for this development are trade conflicts between countries (primarily the US-China customs dispute), as well as "uncertainty related to geopolitical risks".

Growth is also being weighed down by country-specific factors in several emerging market economies, and by structural forces, such as low productivity growth and aging demographics in advanced economies, IMF reported,

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the current development of the situation "alarming" and the eventual unregulated exit of the UK from the EU as one of the factors influencing the current negative situation.

IMF emphasised that countries need to work together because multilateralism remains the only solution to tackling major issues, such as risks from climate change, cybersecurity risks, tax avoidance and tax evasion, and the opportunities and challenges of emerging financial technologies.