WASHINGTON—The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday warned that avoiding recession in the United States will be “increasingly challenging” as it again cut its 2022 U.S. growth forecast to 2.3 percent from 2.9 percent in late June as recent data showed weakening consumer spending.
The Fund also cut its 2023 real GDP growth forecast to 1.0 percent from 1.7 percent on June 24, when it met with U.S. officials for an annual assessment of U.S. economic policies.
The final report released on Friday was revised to reflect downward revisions to U.S. first quarter GDP and weak consumer spending data in May.
But it continued to highlight the challenges of high inflation and the steep Federal Reserve interest rate hikes needed to control prices….