Copper fell to a new nine month trough on Tuesday as concerns the global economic slowdown will crimp demand weighed on sentiment, compounded by an International Monetary Fund downgrade to global growth.

Euro zone worries, a string of poor US economic data and the latest International Monetary Fund outlook have increasingly tempered expectations for copper demand.

Three month copper on the London Metal Exchange traded at USD 8,348 a tonne at 1420 GMT, down by 0.3% from Monday's close at USD 8,364. It earlier reached a new low since November 30th 2010 at USD 8,308 a tonne.

Mr David Wilson of Societe Generale analyst said that "Everything is about Europe there's more and more nervousness about debt issues, and the potential downgrade of other European countries.”

IMF warned in its latest economic outlook that high debt loads, slowing output and market turmoil imperil economic recovery in Europe and prompt action by policymakers is essential to prevent the regional outlook from worsening.

It also cut its forecast for global growth to 4% for this year and next, shaving projections for almost every region of the world and saying risks remained tilted to the downside. Just three months ago it had projected an expansion of 4.3% for 2011 and 4.5% for 2012.

(Sourced from Reuters)