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WASHINGTON, Oct. 18-- Asia is expected to grow at 5.0 percent in 2019 and 5.1 percent in 2020, with risks to the projection still skewed downward, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said on Friday. "In line with the slowdown of global growth, the growth in the Asia Pacific region is expected to be the slowest since the global financial crisis in our context of prolonged global uncertainty," Changyong Rhee, director of IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, said during a press conference at the 2019 annual meetings for the IMF and the World Bank. Noting that the global economy is experiencing a synchronized slowdown amid trade and geopolitical tensions, Rhee said Asia is no exception to the trend and was hit hard by this trend. "Given how open the Asian region is, how dependent on trade and investment and manufacturing and so forth, it is completely unsurprising that Asia would also experience a very significant slowdown in 2019 and 2020," Jonathan Ostry, deputy director at the IMF's Asia and Pacific Department, told Xinhua. Ostry said trade tensions have not only caused the direct effect of tariffs, but there are also effects on confidence on financial markets, and "these effects take a toll on investment and growth." In China, growth is expected to decline moderately to 6.1 percent in 2019 and 5.8 percent in 2020, according the IMF's newly-released World Economic Outlook. "This will reflect China's ongoing transition to a more sustainable growth model and the negative impact on ongoing trade tensions," Rhee said. | 
