Washington, - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its projections for Slovenia in its latest World Economic Outlook. The country's GDP is projected to increase by 5.7% this year, an upgrade of 2 percentage points on its April figures, as the forecast for 2023 was corrected downwards by 1.3 points to 1.7%. Inflation is to near 9% this year.

The end-of-year inflation forecast is forecast to hit 8.9%, much higher than the 6.7% rate projected in April. However, the rate is expected to ease to 5.1% in 2023.

The country's unemployment rate is expected to drop from 4.8% last year to 4.3% this year and the next.

The IMF released its latest outlook during its annual meetings in Washington with the World Bank, noting that storm clouds are gathering over the global economy and that the worst is yet to come. The three main challenges are Russia's invasion of Ukraine, inflation and China's slowing growth.

Ahead of Monday's start of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva called for concerted action to stabilise the global economy by addressing the most pressing challenges, including inflation, that increase the threat of global recession.

Georgieva pointed to rising energy prices as a particular problem for eurozone economies.