DUBAI: The world economy is going through a `tepid` recovery, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday, adding that growth in advanced economies should be higher.

Spealcing at a women`s forum in Dubai, the newly re-elected Lagarde said global economic growth stood at 3.1 per cent last year, and is expected to grow by `a bit more than three per cent` this year, and a `little higher` in 2017.

`It is a growth but it is a tepid growth because the recovery that we see in the United States, Europe and a little bit in Japan as well could be bigger,` she said.

`If you compare current growth to the potential output the economy should deliver, it is less,` she added.

As for emerging economies, apart from India whichis `doing pretty well,` they are slowing down, said Lagarde.

Other emerging economies are either `deliberately` slowing down like China, or `in a pretty weak position` like Russia, Brazil or South Africa, she said.

`Those countries are struggling. Both Russia and Brazil will be in negative territory this year.

Lagarde said commodity producers, particularly oil exporters, `are facing a completely new reality.

She said world prices, not only of oil but also of metals and food, `have gone down significantly to actually change the business models of those countries, which some of them are addressing well.

`It`s really a new reality that these countries are dealing with at the moment.`-AFP