DUSHANBE, July 10, 2015, Asia-Plus -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update July 2015 notes that growth in emerging market and developing economies is projected to slow from 4.6 percent in 2014 to 4.2 percent in 2015, broadly as expected.

The slowdown reportedly reflects the dampening impact of lower commodity prices and tighter external financial conditions—particularly in Latin America and oil exporters, the rebalancing in China, and structural bottlenecks, as well as economic distress related to geopolitical factors—particularly in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and some countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

In 2016, growth in emerging market and developing economies is expected to pick up to 4.7 percent, largely on account of the projected improvement in economic conditions in a number of distressed economies, including Russia and some economies in the Middle East and North Africa.  As noted in earlier WEO reports, in many other emerging market and developing economies, much of the growth slowdown in recent years has amounted to a moderation from above-trend growth.