The first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopinath, explains that "significant downgrades for the US and for China" are behind the IMF's decision to cut its world GDP forecast for 2022 to 4.4 percent, half a point lower than the October estimate. Omicron "will have a negative impact in the first quarter of this year. But for the year as a whole, we're estimating its impact to be quite small," Gopinath also tells AFP. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES