The International Monetary Fund downgraded Asia's growth outlook citing prolonged global policy uncertainty and slowing growth in China and India, and highlighted rising downside risks to growth.

According to the latest economic assessment for Asia and the Pacific, Asia will grow only 5% this year instead of 5.4% projected earlier due to weak trade and investment. This would be the slowest expansion since the global financial crisis. The projection for 2020 was trimmed to 5.1% from 5.4% forecast in April.

The IMF said Asia's near-term policy priorities should aim at preventing a sharp growth slowdown, while reducing vulnerabilities.

China is expected to expand 6.1% in 2019, and 5.8% in 2020. The outlook for 2019 was lowered from 6.3% and that for 2020 from 6.1%. The lender observed that the gradual slowdown in China reflects the ongoing rebalancing of growth drivers and the adoption of new trade measures by the US and China.

Japan's economy is projected to expand at a moderate pace of 0.9% in 2019 and 0.5% in 2020.