If the Inca sun gods have been hiding in Lima, as the chieftains of the global economy gathered over the past week, it is because they were given plenty of reason to go into hiding.
Under leaden skies in the Peruvian capital, the International Monetary Fund has delivered a series of reports full of gloom. It has downgraded its forecast for growth this year and warned of grim financial risks hanging over the global economy. The fund now expects the global economy to grow at 3.1 per cent, its slowest growth rate since the 2007-8 financial crisis and the recession that followed in many big economies.
Such a downbeat view of the global economy has been borne out by data coming out of the US and Germany over the past week. What had hitherto been a resilient US labour market showed signs of slowing down in September, and Germany’s exports and industrial production are suffering from a downturn in China and other emerging economies.