Investing.com - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today raised its economic growth forecast for the American economy over the next two years, predicting that President-elect Donald Trump's aggressive policies likely will boost economic growth, particularly next year.
The IMF increased 2017 growth projections for a number of other leading economic powers including Britain, China, Germany, and Japan.
The fund worried that the global economy will have to withstand downside risk from rising protectionism to increasing interest rates.
If President Trump's trade proposals set off a trade war, the IMF said, that could be "quite destructive" for worldwide growth.
Trump has convinced quite a number of companies since the election, including United Technologies (NYSE:UTX), Ford Motor Co . (NYSE:F) and Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE:SWK) to build manufacturing plants in the U.S., rather than in Mexico. The moves have already led to thousands of jobs remaining in America that would have otherwise been lost to "global trade," a key theme in Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.
The 189-nation global lending agency's latest economic report noted the impact Trump's election has already had in giving a boost to Wall Street stocks, interest rates, and the dollar. The new report puts U.S. economic growth at 2.3% this year and 2.5% in 2018.
Clinton Foundation Shuttered
In other global news, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), run by former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is laying off 22 workers, due to donations drying up, from global donors, in the wake of Mrs. Clinton's spectacular election loss last fall. Clinton's foundation filed papers with the state of New York indicating that it was shutting down operations.
Trump criticized the foundation as a slush fund for the Clinton family during the campaign last year, and the FBI is still investigating allegations of corruption against President and Mrs. Clinton and the foundation.