That is higher than the IMF''s last official outlook from October that said expansion for advanced economies hit by a fiscal crisis would be 1.5 percent. She did not alter other estimates.
"The overall (global) outlook for 2013 is for growth of 3.6 percent on average. We believe emerging economies and low-income economies will expand 5.6 percent, while advanced economies will grow 1.6 percent," Lagarde said, according to the newspaper. "We will see a slight improvement in relation to 2012," said the IMF chief, who was in Chile through Friday for an economics conference. For this year, the IMF expects a global economic expansion of 3.3 percent.