The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday that the world economy was headed for “stormy waters” as it downgraded its global growth projections for next year and warned of a harsh worldwide recession if policymakers mishandled the fight against inflation.

The IMF cut its projection of India’s economic growth in 2022 to 6.8 per cent from the 7.4 per cent forecast in July.

The IMF maintained its most recent forecast that the global economy will grow by 3.2 per cent this year but has now projected that it will slow to 2.7 per cent in 2023, slightly lower than its previous estimate.

At the start of the year, the IMF had projected a much stronger global growth of 4.4 per cent in 2022 and 3.8 per cent in 2023, which underlines how the outlook has darkened in recent months.