• Stock markets posted gains worldwide, while in fixed-income markets U.S. and German sovereign yields edged up and euro area sovereign spreads nudged down.
• In the updated World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Report, the IMF remarks that the global economic expansion has become broader and stronger and projects that global growth will stand at 3.8 percent in both 2018 and 2019. Advanced economies are expected to grow faster than potential in the short term as the euro area narrows excess capacity and fiscal policy drives the U.S. economy above full employment. However, in the medium term the IMF sees a challenging outlook with risks tilted to the downside due to geopolitical and macro financial factors.
• Regarding Spain, the IMF upgraded its growth forecasts to 2.8 percent in 2018 (+0.4pp) and 2.2 percent in 2019 (+0.1pp). In Portugal, the IMF projects a growth rate of 2.4 percent in 2018 (-0.1pp) and 1.8 percent in 2019 (-0.2pp).
• In Turkey, Erdogan called elections for June 24, a year earlier than scheduled.