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[email protected] Report on Political Developments (Adopted at the January 17-19, 2020 Meeting of the Central Committee Thiruvananthapuram) International Global Economy IMF, in its latest report (October 2019), forecasts that global growth will be 3.0 percent for 2019, its lowest level since 2008-2009 and a 0.3 percentage point downgrade from the April 2019. The World Bank estimates are even lower at 2.6 per cent. Momentum in manufacturing activity has weakened substantially to levels not seen since the global financial crisis. Rising trade and geopolitical tensions are also contributing. IMF has further downgraded its forecast for 2020 by 0.2 percentage points. This global growth pattern reflects a major downturn. The IMF suggests further “reform push in such areas as governance, domestic and external finance, trade, and labour and product markets”. Despite the bankruptcy of neo liberalism, IMF brazenly advises governments to deregulate domestic financial markets, implement labour reforms, by easing job protection legislations and cutting barriers to international trade and finance entry into the countries. In its Annual Report 2019, its wants the governments to reduce corporate tax, to make it ‘fair’. These will mean further severe ‘austerity’ policies that are an attack on the livelihood of the people. IMF advices the governments to ‘act swiftly following an electoral victory to implement them (reforms) during their political ‘honeymoon’ period’. Protests Across the World People around the world are in protests against the imposition of further economic burdens.