The global economy is in "gloomy and uncertain" territory as rate hikes and inflation hit nations including Australia, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It comes as new figures are released in Australia that show price hikes here are continuing, with inflation now at 6.1 per cent annually.

That could lead to another rate hike here, which is exactly the spiral globally that the IMF is noting in its latest forecast. 

The international financial institution has revised its growth forecast to 3.2 per cent this year and 2.9 per cent next year.

This represents 0.4 per cent and 0.7 per cent downgrades from projections just a few months ago.

The IMF is making these projections as a maelstrom of economic conditions hit major economies including China, the US and the EU.

"The world’s three largest economies are stalling, with important consequences for the global outlook. Inflation is a major concern," the IMF writes in its latest report.

In Australia, the factors hitting the global economy are also biting.

This could prompt yet another rate hike.

"Central banks of major advanced economies are withdrawing monetary support faster than we expected in April," the IMF writes.

"While many in emerging markets and developing economies had already started raising interest rates last year."

The Australian share market will today have to deal with all these jitters about rate hikes and inflation continue globally.

But while ASX 200 futures were down all morning, the benchmark opened marginally up and was up 0.05 per cent by 10:30am AEST.

And within half an hour of the inflation figures for Australia being released by the ABS, the ASX 200 was basically trading even.

It was down just 0.03 per cent at 12pm AEST.

Early performers included Zip (+6.8pc) which is continuing to rise after coming off a very low base. The buy-now-pay-later platform's stock is still only at just over $1.

Most of the major indexes were in the red, except for healthcare stocks.

All three of the major indexes on Wall Street closed down, with the Nasdaq diving almost 2 per cent. The Dow Jones lost 0.7 per cent, while the S&P500 took a 1.2 per cent hit.

European markets also closed in the red.

The price of brent oil is down again, but it is the cost of natural gas that is being watched as it rises.

Bloomberg is reporting that it could hit its highest level since 2008, as Russian threatens to cut supply.

Daily FX analyst Thomas Westwater said China was also presenting an interesting story.

It is again battling rising COVID-19 cases and the downgraded forecast from the IMF; however iron ore prices there are rising.

"That likely helped the Australian dollar, which fell versus the US dollar but rose versus its cross-Tasman counterpart, the New Zealand dollar," Mr Westwater noted. 

Mr Westwater also noted that a likely rise in inflation and therefore rates in Australia may help the dollar too.

"A higher-than-expected print may see RBA rate hike bets increase, which may help the Aussie dollar."

A range of mining stocks such as Champion and Bluescope were down on the inflation news.

Mining exporters could be affected by a higher Australian dollar because that would make the nation's exports more expensive for other economies to buy.