The global economy will come “perilously close” to slipping into a recession this year, the World Bank warned in its latest semi-annual report.
The international lender slashed its global economic growth forecast by close to half, to 1.7 percent, led by slowing growth in the world’s top economies of the United States, Europe, and China. This estimate is down from its previous prediction of 3 percent six months ago.
If the projection is accurate, this would represent the third-weakest annual expansion in about 30 years, just behind the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession and the 2008–2009 financial crisis.
“The global economy has slowed to the extent that it is perilously close to falling into recession—defined as a contraction in annual global per capita income—only three years after emerging from the pandemic-induced recession of 2020,” the report states….