The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reported that the world will not slip into a global depression after revising its estimates of growth for the remainder of this year and 2010.

The IMF’s half-yearly World Economic Outlook report forecasts a turn to positive growth in 2010 by 3.1%, which is higher than the 2.5% it predicted three months ago.

Despite the prediction of a return to growth, the IMF said the recovery would be sluggish and would not stop an increase in unemployment across the world.

The UK is expected to return to growth in 2010 at 0.9%, rather than the 0.2% the IMF predicted in its previous forecasting. The IMF’s prediction is less generous than Chancellor Darling’s prediction of 1.25%.