Multilateral financier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that a range of triggers beyond escalating trade tensions, including a “no deal Brexit” that could see the UK bundled out of the EU without clear terms and a slowing Chinese economy could ignite a further deterioration in risk sentiment.

The Bretton Woods institution has projected the global economy is projected to grow at 3.5 per cent this year and 3.6 per cent in 2020, 0.2 and 0.1 percentage down from last year’s estimates.

Said IMF counsellor Professor Gita Gopinath at the World Economic forum in Davos:

“While global growth in 2018 remained close to postcrisis highs, the global expansion is weakening and at a rate that is somewhat faster than expected. This update of the World Economic Outlook (WEO) projects global growth at 3.5 percent in 2019 and 3.6 percent in 2020, 0.2 and 0.1 percentage point below last October’s projections.

“The downward revisions are modest; however, we believe the risks to more significant downward corrections are rising. While financial markets in advanced economies appeared to be decoupled from trade tensions for much of 2018, the two have become intertwined more recently, tightening financial conditions and escalating the risks to global growth.”