IMF boosts Canadian forecast

After contracting by about 2.5 per cent in 2009, Canada's economy is forecast to grow by 2.1 per cent next year, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

"After a deep recession, global economic growth has turned positive," the IMF said in its semiannual World Economic Outlook on Thursday.

Globally, the IMF forecasts the international economy to expand by about 3.1 per cent in 2010 after contracting by about 1.1 per cent in 2009.

"The recovery has started. Financial markets are healing," IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard said.

"In most countries, growth will be positive for the rest of the year, as well as in 2010." But he stressed that, to sustain the recovery, private consumption and investment will have to strengthen as high public spending and large fiscal deficits are unwound.

The IMF forecast is similar to that put out by TD Economics last month, which forecast 2.5 per cent growth for Canada's economy in 2010, and 3.8 per cent global growth.

It is somewhat more pessimistic than the Bank of Canada's projection that the Canadian economy will contract by 2.3 per cent in 2009 and then grow by 3.0 per cent in 2010.

The growth will not be evenly distributed, the IMF says. After contracting by an estimated 3.4 per cent in 2009, developed economies will grow by an average of 1.2 per cent in 2010, the IMF said.

But developing economies will expand by 5.1 per cent next year, after growing by an estimated 1.7 per cent in 2009, the agency said.

Shoe-toss protest mars IMF meeting

The report was released as the IMF begins its annual meetings in Istanbul.

The meetings got off to an interesting start when a protester threw a shoe at IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the proceedings began.

The man threw his white sports shoe and ran toward the speakers platform shouting "IMF get out," but he was blocked by security guards.

Guards quickly pushed the shoe-thrower to the floor, covering his mouth with their hands and then dragging him from the hall. After additional protesters tried to unfurl an anti-IMF banner, the conference was cut short and the hall evacuated.

The bizarre protest is reminiscent of an incident in December 2008 when Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw his shoe at then U.S. president George W. Bush.