(Yicai Global) May 24 -- Consumers in China and the US are the ones who bear the brunt of the trade dispute between the two nations and further tariff hikes are expected to be added to consumer prices, the International Monetary Fund suggests.

"Consumers in the US and China are unequivocally the losers from trade tensions," the IMF said in a report published on its IMFBlog website yesterday. The report used price data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on imports from China.

"The tariff revenue collected has been borne almost entirely by US importers," the IMF said. Some of the tariffs have been passed on to US consumers, including those on washing machines, while others have been absorbed by importing firms through lower profit margins, it added.

The latest escalation in tariffs could significantly harm business and financial market sentiment, disrupt global supply chains, and jeopardize the projected recovery in global growth in 2019, the report revealed. 

The IMF expects the latest duty increases that target USD200 billion worth of Chinese goods and USD60 billion worth of US goods, as well as envisaged new tariffs, to cut the global gross-domestic-product growth by 0.3 percent.

The trade tensions between the two biggest economies in the world have not reduced their trade deficit, as both lowered the volume of imported goods from each other. 

Despite President Donald Trump's effort to move production homeward, the US still relies on imports. The USD850 million decline in Chinese imports to the US was almost offset by about a USD850 million increase from Mexico after the list that targeted USD16 billion worth of goods was implemented last August.

Soybean producers, one of key US exporters to China, suffered from lowered prices as stock sat idle when China bought more of such livestock feed from Brazil, raising prices there, the report added. 

Editor: Emmi Laine