Investing.com - Asian stocks fell in morning trade on Tuesday after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global growth forecast to the weakest in three years.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component were down 0.7% and 0.9% 9:46 PM ET (02:46 GMT). Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.1%.
Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) was in focus on Tuesday as it was again absent from the list of the latest video games titles approved by Chinese authorities.
The company’s domestic rival NetEase Inc (NASDAQ:NTES) was also absent from the list.
The list was the third since December 2018. China previously approved a batch of 84 new video games earlier in January.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI both fell 0.7%.
Down under, Australia’s ASX 200 was also down 0.7%.
Reports that the IMF forecasted the world economy would grow at the weakest pace in three years in 2019 were cited as the catalyst for the selling in equities. The Fund cited multiple threats as the reason for the downgrade, including China-U.S. trade disputes, a renewed tightening of financial conditions, a “no deal” Brexit and a deeper-than-anticipated slowdown in China.
"A range of triggers beyond escalating trade tensions could spark a further deterioration in risk sentiment with adverse growth implications, especially given high levels of public and private debt," the Fund said.
The IMF now projects a 3.5% growth rate worldwide for 2019 and 3.6% for 2020. These are 0.2 and 0.1% points below its last forecasts in October.
In other news, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May refused to rule out a delay to the March 29 Brexit exit date.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Labour party called for a vote that could pave the way to a second referendum, according to reports.