Chief Economist Oliver Blanchard notes, "Explicit indexes of uncertainty, such as the VIX in the United States or the VStoxx in Europe, remain at fairly low levels."

 

Blanchard suggests that this uncertainty is existential in nature, and reflects widespread doubt regarding the ability world leaders to solve the economic problems of our era. He acknowledges that the IMF's forecasts may prove "too pessimistic" if uncertainty is reduced.

The IMF gives economic forecasts for 185 economies.

We scoured the IMF's report and the CIA World Factbook to bring you the twenty slowest-growing economies according to their forecasted compounded annual growth rate from 2013 through 2017.