Wednesday September 22

Key forecasts in IMF World Economic Outlook


    WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund issued the
following projections for world output in 1999 and 2000.
 (Annual percent change unless otherwise noted)

                              Current     Differences from May
                            Projections      1999 Projections
                          1998  1999  2000      1999   2000

 World output              2.5   3.0   3.5       0.7    0.1
 Advanced economies        2.2   2.8   2.7       0.8    0.4
  Major industrial
  countries                2.2   2.6   2.4       0.7    0.4
   United States           3.9   3.7   2.6       0.4    0.4
   Japan                  -2.8   1.0   1.5       2.4    1.2
   Germany                 2.3   1.4   2.5      -0.1   -0.3
   France                  3.2   2.5   3.0       0.3    0.1
   Italy                   1.3   1.2   2.4      -0.3    0.0
   Britain                 2.2   1.1   2.4       0.4    0.3
   Canada                  3.1   3.6   2.6       1.0    0.1
  Other advanced
   economies               2.1   3.5   3.6       1.0    0.2

 Industrial countries      2.4   2.6   2.5       0.6    0.3
 Euro area                 2.8   2.1   2.8       0.1   -0.1
 Newly industrialized
  Asian economies         -1.8   5.2   5.1       3.1    0.6

 Developing countries      3.2   3.5   4.8       0.4   -0.1
  Africa                   3.4   3.1   5.0      -0.1   -0.1
  Asia                     3.7   5.3   5.4       0.6   -0.3
   China                   7.8   6.6   6.0       0.0   -1.0
   India                   5.8   5.7   5.5       0.5    0.4
   ASEAN-4 (1)            -9.8   1.4   3.6       2.5    0.6
 Middle East & Europe      3.2   1.8   3.1      -0.2   -0.2
 Western Hemisphere        2.2   0.1   3.9       0.6    0.4
  Brazil                   0.1  -1.0   4.0       2.8    0.3
 Countries in transition  -0.2   0.8   2.8       1.7    0.3
  Central & eastern Europe 2.2   1.0   3.3      -1.0   -0.4
   Excluding Belarus and
   Ukraine                 2.3   1.7   4.0      -1.3   -0.6
  Russia                  -4.6   0.0   2.0       7.0    2.0
  Transcaucasus & central
  Asia                     2.2   2.0   2.9       0.2   -0.2

Note: Real effective exchange rates are assumed to remain constant
at the levels prevailing during July 26-August 16, 1999.
(1) Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.