Poor IMF prognoses not to be taken too seriously

The IMF lowered its forecast for global business activity on Tuesday. Sluggish growth in the industrial states and the European debt crisis have caused the organisation to forecast four percent growth for the global economy in 2011 and 2012, instead of the previous 4.3 and 4.5 percent respectively. But the longer the crisis lasts, the more hot air the analysts produce, writes the business paper Les Echos: "Let's not mince our words: these figures would instil fear in our hearts if we hadn't already heard so many similar ones! ... These aren't the first IMF forecasts ... nor will they be the last! That suggests the somewhat brazen consideration: day after day, Brussels, the OECD, the IMF, the public and private analysts publish a never-ending stream of forecasts and comments. .. It makes make you want to agree with writer Erik Orsenna who says that in today's over-informed, pathologically agitated world, it's the commentators who play the key role in politics and the economy. And above all more heed is paid to them than to the people actually calling the shots. Nevertheless, those calling the shots haven't done a thing to change the situation either."

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