The International Monetary Fund’s new Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Tuesday said a “synchronised slowdown” of the global economy was having a “more pronounced” effect on emerging market economies such as India, Hindustan Times reported.

Georgieva took over from Christine Lagarde as the organisation’s head earlier this month. She pointed out that widespread deceleration meant growth in 2019-’20 would fall to its “lowest rate” since the beginning of the decade, ANI reported.

“Two years ago, the global economy was in a synchronised upswing,” Georgieva said in her first speech since taking over as the head of the organisation. “Measured by GDP, nearly 75% of the world was accelerating. The global economy is now in a synchronised slowdown. In 2019, we expect slower growth in nearly 90% of the world.”

The monetary fund chief said unemployment was at historic lows in the United States and Germany. “Yet across advanced economies, including in the US, Japan, and especially the Euro area, there is a softening of economic activity,” Georgieva added. “In some of the largest emerging market economies, such as India and Brazil, the slowdown is even more pronounced this year.”

Global trade growth has come to a “near standstill”, she said.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund said India’s economic growth was much weaker than expected, and attributed it to factors such as “corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty”. In July, it had revised India’s growth forecast for 2019-’20 downward to 7%, from the 7.3% it had predicted in April.

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