Caution against misguided fears on growth and oil

If the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, the International Monetary Fund's decision to cut its global growth forecast for the third time in a year should not be interpreted as a result of worries about the Chinese economy or plummeting oil prices.

Instead, a thorough review of the fundamentals of all major economies is needed to help policymakers around the world prepare for a year that may be at least as turbulent as 2015.

Hard on the heels of China announcing its GDP growth was 6.9 percent in 2015, the slowest in 25 years, the IMF cut its global growth forecasts for this year and the next by 0.2 percentage points, predicting 3.4 percent growth for 2016 and 3.6 percent for 2017.