Tim Colebatch in The Age says The important point s that the IMF knows that the global economic crisis is the most dangerous the world has faced in the postwar years — and it still believes it's not going to put much of a dent in the real world global economy. Yes, the United States will go into recession, and Europe and Japan will see their growth halved. But the world can grow without them — and that is what the IMF predicts it will do.

He says that:

The conventional view used to be that the fast-growing developing countries needed growth in the US to generate pace. Either the US consumer was buying their goods, or she bought the goods that enabled others to buy them. Now the IMF believes that's no longer true. India's growth has little to do with exporting to the US, or with exports at all, but is essentially generated domestically. China has relied heavily on exports to generate growth, but its leaders have made it clear that if export growth falters, they can and will throw the switch to generate more domestic growth.