European benchmarks down following IMF growth downgrades
The major European benchmarks are subdued following the IMF’s global growth downgrades.
The majority of European stock indices have opened lower this morning (October 9th), following news the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its global expansion forecasts.
In its World Economic Outlook report – which has been released ahead of its next biannual meeting in Tokyo – the IMF has revised down predictions for international growth this year to just 3.3 per cent, when in July this figure was 3.5 per cent.
This makes 2012 the slowest for expansions since 2009.
One of the biggest downgrades was applied to the UK's economic output, which is expected to shrink by 0.4 per cent in 2012, compared to July's anticipated 0.2 per cent growth.
The report followed yesterday's launch of the European Stability Mechanism and the IMF highlighted the importance of having such a facility in the troubled eurozone.
At 08:50 BST, the FTSE 100 was down marginally to 5838.1 points, while the Dax lost 0.3 per cent to 7267.3 points and the Cac 40 retreated 0.1 per cent to 3403.2 points.
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