A slower-than-expected recovery across the global economy will keep interest rates in rich countries at historic lows for several years, the International Monetary Fund has warned in its World Economic Outlook.

Interest rates will rise gently over the next couple of years in response to higher GDP growth, but will likely be pegged back by a stuttering performance by Europe and slower growth in China, the Washington-based organisation said.

The gloomy diagnosis will dismay savers, who have seen the value of their savings whittled away by inflation since the financial crisis.

Savers are seen as the big losers from the financial crash, which forced central banks to slash rates to almost zero to prevent commercial and residential borrowers from going bust in large numbers.

The IMF blamed the Asian savings glut alongside a longstanding demand for safe haven assets and a lack of investment opportunities, especially in the developed world for the persistence of low interest rates across the world.

It said that while the 2008 financial crisis had exacerbated the problem, low interest rates stretched back 30 years and many of the fundamental drivers will remain in place when the crisis is a distant memory.

It has been known for many years that the accumulated savings of Asian workers, western pension savers and the oil rich countries in the Middle East have outstripped the capacity of the world economy for investment. Many economists have highlighted how savers cannot find enough productive industries in which to invest and have increasingly come to rely on buying government bonds to supply an income. The traditionally low interest rates paid by government bonds has fallen further since the financial crash in countries seen as a safe haven, including the UK, US and Switzerland.

The IMF said low interest rates might spur risk-taking behaviour by investors who demand a higher rate of return on their investments. It said: "A protracted period of low real interest rates would have negative implications for pension funds and insurance companies with defined-benefit obligations. An environment of continued low real (and nominal) interest rates might also induce investors and financial institutions more broadly to search for higher real (and nominal) yields by taking on more risk.

"Increased risk taking, in turn, might increase systemic financial sector risks, and appropriate macro- and microprudential oversight would therefore be critical for maintaining financial stability."

The World Economic Outlook is the IMF's major analysis of the global economy ahead of its spring conference in Washington next week. The meeting runs alongside the annual meeting of the World Bank and get-togethers of G20 ministers and the Financial Stability Board, an offshoot of the G20 of nations that is attempting to bring calm to global markets.

Analysts at the IMF said a slowdown in China and many emerging markets would slow the general pace of the recovery and be another reason for central banks to keep interest rates low. It said a return to health in the US would not be enough to reignite the Asian tiger economies that did so much to propel global growth ahead of the financial crisis and in the years immediately afterwards.

The analysis ties in with predictions that interest rates will begin to rise in the UK and US next year, but only slowly and peaking at no more than 3%.

The G20 has urged greater cooperation and co-ordination by governments to prevent rising interest rates from slowing the recovery. Some countries have borrowed heavily to maintain growth in the past few years and encouraged capital inflows with higher than average interest rates. The prospect of higher rates in the US has caused a reversal of the flow of funds to the detriment of many emerging markets.

In a speech in Washington on Wednesday, the IMF head, Christine Lagarde, said that without greater co-ordination and reforms to outdated labour protections and cosy business arrangements, global growth would remain subdued for many years