The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday global economic growth would be 4 percent in 2011, 0.3 of a percentage point lower than its June forecast.

But it said China's economic growth was expected to remain robust at 9.5 percent this year after growing 10.3 percent in 2010.

The figures are contained in the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook report, the flagship product of the Washington-based international institution.

In its June projections, the IMF expected world output to grow 4.3 percent and 4.5 percent in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

"The global economy is in a dangerous new phase," the report said. "Global activity has weakened and become more uneven, confidence has fallen sharply recently, and downside risks are growing."

The Fund noted that, against a backdrop of unresolved structural fragilities, a barrage of shocks hit the world economy this year, including the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan and unrest in some oil-producing countries.

At the same time, the U.S. economy had stalled, the euro area encountered major financial turbulence, and global markets suffered a major sell-off of risky assets.

The report said the forecast for advanced economies was gloomier due to the continuing evolution of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, with increasing market worries about a debt default in Greece.

The IMF projected that growth in advanced economies in 2011 and 2012 would only reach 1.6 percent and 1.9 percent, slower than its projections in June.

The structural problems facing the crisis-hit advanced economies had proved more intractable than expected, and the process of devising and implementing reforms even more complicated, the Fund said.

The outlook for these economies was thus for a continuing, but weak and bumpy expansion, it said.

Prospects for emerging market economies had become more uncertain again, although growth was expected to remain fairly robust, especially in economies that could counter the effect on output of weaker foreign demand with less policy tightening, the IMF said.

The Fund said China's economic growth was expected to remain robust at 9.5 percent this year and 9 percent in 2012.

Investment growth had decelerated with the unwinding of the country's fiscal stimulus, but it remained the principal contributor to growth, it said.

Although inflationary pressure persisted, property price inflation and credit growth had softened from recent record levels due to efforts to withdraw credit stimulus, the report said.

These efforts included administrative limits on credit growth, higher interest rates and tighter reserve requirements, said the report, adding that China also set loan-to-value limits in mortgage credit and restrictions on multiple home purchases to rein in property prices.

(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2011)