IMF July WEO: Brics update mixed as Brazil's expansion rate falls while Russia's rises

The change in IMF's 2015 growth forecast for the Brics group of economies have come in mixed in the July update of the Fund's World Economic Outlook (WEO) with Brazil's rate sliding while Russia's rising.

The expansion rates of India, China and South Africa have been kept steady from the April WEO.

Russia will continue to be in recession, but the rate has improved to -3.4% from -3.8%. The 2016 growth projection for Russia has been revised up by 1.3 percentage points to 0.2%.

Brazil will contract 1.5% in 2015 as per the July update compared to the 1% decline projected in the April forecast. The 2016 projection has come down to 0.7%, down by 0.3 percentage points.

China's 2015 projection stayed at 6.8% and that for the next year at 6.3%. India will grow 7.5% in 2015 as well as 2016, the July WEO showed.

South Africa's GDP growth for 2015 will be 2% and that for the next year will be 2.1% with no change from the April forecast, the IMF said.

For the entire emerging and developing economies, the main drag on growth will be lower commodity prices and tighter external financial conditions, the IMF said.

The group is likely to grow 4.2% this year, down by 0.1 percentage point projected in the April WEO. The 2016 growth rate is seen at 4.7% with no change from the prior estimate.

"In emerging market economies, the continued growth slowdown reflects several factors, including lower commodity prices and tighter external financial conditions, structural bottlenecks, rebalancing in China, and economic distress related to geopolitical factors," IMF said.

"A rebound in activity in a number of distressed economies is expected to result in a pickup in growth in 2016."

The world economic output has been projected at 3.3% in the July edition, down by 0.2 percentage points in the April WEO. The 2016 forecast is kept at 3.8%.