Washington, October 14:

Global finance chiefs gather this week with the impact of US housing and credit woes spreading worldwide, exchange rate tensions rising and new agendas being carved out at the IMF and World Bank (WB).

Meetings of the Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers followed by annual gatherings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and WB are being held against a backdrop of slowing global growth, but comments from key leaders suggest there is no reason to panic.

IMF officials nonetheless have said they expect to lower their forecast for global economic growth as well as estimates for major economies including the US and the eurozone.

Sources said that the Fund’s World Economic Outlook would lower its global forecast to 4.8

per cent growth from a previous estimate of 5.2 per cent.

The IMF’s outgoing head Rodrigo Rato said that the global credit squeeze that began with subprime US housing failures may not be over.