World economic growth is originating almost exclusively from the emerging world

The IMF released its updated take on the world's economic growth prospects on January 24th. Dragged down by the euro crisis, the Fund expects world economic output to slow to 3.3% in 2012, against an estimate of 3.8% for 2011. This is 0.7 percentage points lower than the forecast it made in September. Emerging markets account for around half of global economic output but, given the continued process of deleveraging across the rich world, the IMF expects them to contribute over 80% of world GDP growth in 2012. America's contribution is expected to decline from 21% on average during the 1980s to 10% during 2010-13. Meanwhile China's contribution has increased from 8% in the 1980s to 31% on average for 2010-13.