IMF downgrades the forecast for the global economy

The International Monetary Fund has downgraded its forecast for the global economy - trimming half a percentage point off its projection - now at 4.4 per cent. The IMF's First Deputy Managing Director, Gita Gopinath tells us the focus right now is on the world’s two biggest economies - the US and China - neither of which, the IMF believes, will be immune to the slowdown. India and Japan, by contrast, are forecast to buck the trend. Also in the programme we discuss how Walmart has joined a couple of big venture capital firms in investing in a vertical farming company called Plenty - and is already committing to carrying its produce in all its California outlets. Leo Marcelis takes us through the benefits of the concept. He's the Professor of Horticulture and Product Physiology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Glenn Hubbard is Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University in the United States. He tells us about his new book where he discusses economic routes towards what Edmund Phelps called "mass flourishing". Also in the programme, the BBC's Ed Butler reports on how drug cartels in Mexico have turned to innovative solutions to continue smuggling drugs across the border into the United States. Presenter Fergus Nicholl is joined by Erin Delmore in the US and Peter Landers in Japan. PHOTO CREDT: GETTY IMAGES