Revised growth forecasts not good news for us

The latest assessment of global economic prospects from the IMF does not make for pleasant reading.

The influential organisation has again had to revise down forecasts it made in July in a significant way.

Economic forecasting is, by definition, a hazardous business and one that is not characterised by any level of certainty or indeed accuracy, but it is still quite unusual to see such marked revisions to forecasts originally made so recently. Worryingly, the majority of the downward revisions relate to 2013.