The outlook for the global economy is even bleaker than predicted last month, the International Monetary Fund said, citing the steady deterioration of purchasing managers' surveys in recent months.

It blamed the gloomier outlook on monetary tightening caused by persistently high broad-based inflation, weak growth in China, and continued supply disruptions and food insecurity caused by the war in Ukraine.

Earlier, the IMF lowered its 2023 global growth forecast to 2.7 percent from a previous forecast of 2.9 percent.

In a blog prepared for the G20 leaders' summit in Indonesia, the IMF said that recent high-frequency indicators "confirm that the outlook is bleaker," especially in Europe. It noted that recent purchasing managers' indices, which measure manufacturing and service sector activity, signaled weakness in most of the largest G20 economies, with economic activity declining and inflation remaining stubbornly high.  "G20 countries have fallen from expansionary territory earlier this year to levels that signal contraction," the IMF said, adding that global fragmentation has exacerbated a set of negative risks.

"The challenges that the global economy is facing are immense and weakening economic indicators point to further challenges ahead," the IMF said, adding that the current political environment has been unusually uncertain.

A worsening energy crisis in Europe would severely damage economic growth and raise inflation, while prolonged high inflation could lead to higher-than-expected interest rates and further tighten global financial conditions. This, in turn, has created growing risks of a sovereign debt crisis for vulnerable economies, the IMF said.

Increasingly severe weather events will also hurt growth worldwide.