The IMF, or international monetary fund, has come out on July 3, 2012 as having lower expectations for the U.S. economy. According to spokesmen, the economic recovery “remains tepid” despite all of the stimulating efforts put forward by the different government factions. Economic growth in the 2012 year was initially supposed to be around 2.1%, which is still poor by American standards. Nonetheless, the IMF has openly announced it is forecasting lower growth around 2%.

Although the IMF has only made a slight negative change, they do still say there is a chance the economy will recover faster. However, this is an ominous sign for people who are ready to see a turn in the economy already. Many of the people who are looking at the IMF projections are jobless due to the sluggish economy that has seen unemployment rising.

Unfortunately, the long-term growth of the United States is also a major concern. The forecast for the 2013 year has been cut from 2.4% to 2.25%, which is even more significant than this year’s change. Many people who follow the IMF projections don’t fully rely on the facts and data that they provide, however it is not a good sign either way.

In the report, the IMF warned about adding the tax increases that will be coming at the end of this year. These tax increases will seriously harm the economic recovery, but also hurt those who are in the most pain. The people who try to support a family are struggling greatly with this situation because there are few well paying jobs like there used to be. Many families have defaulted on their homes when the housing bubble burst along with the rest of the American economy.

It is unfortunate, but many families have resigned themselves to living on credit cards, borrowing from family members and getting into pay day loan debt for many months at a time because they are unable to get work. Other families have fallen into the payday loan debt trap where they are consistently getting more and more payday loans in order to pay for the other ones due to the extremely high interest rates these carry. Hopefully, these families will not be seriously harmed by the lack of financial growth in America over the next few years, but there is a sense that they will. The IMF has downgraded the American economic projections, but hopefully they will still provide the jobs that these families so desperately need.