The World Bank has forecast a slowdown in global economic growth in 2025, attributing the downturn to rising trade barriers and ongoing policy uncertainty.
According to the latest Global Economic Prospects report released on Tuesday, growth is projected to decline to 2.3 per cent nearly half a percentage point lower than anticipated at the beginning of the year.
“The global outlook is predicated on tariff rates close to those of late May prevailing,” the report stated. “Accordingly, pauses to previously announced tariff hikes between the United States and its trading partners are assumed to persist.”
Although a global recession is not currently expected, average global growth is on course to be the slowest of any decade since the 1960s.
Growth forecasts have been downgraded in nearly 70 per cent of all economies, with the poorest countries bearing the greatest impact. In most developing economies almost 60 per cent growth is expected to average 3.8 per cent in 2025, before rising marginally to 3.9 per cent over the following two years. This is more than a full percentage point below the average growth rate seen in the 2010s.
The report warns that this prolonged slowdown could hinder job creation, poverty reduction, and efforts to close the income gap between developing and high-income countries.
“The world economy today is once more running into turbulence. Without a swift course correction, the harm to living standards could be deep,” the World Bank warned.
The report calls for urgent measures to rebuild trade relationships, noting that “economic cooperation is better than any of the alternatives for all parties,” according to Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist.
Countries are also encouraged to improve business environments and boost employment by ensuring that workers possess the skills needed in a changing economic landscape.
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WFP Raises Alarm over Haiti’s Vulnerability in Hurricane Season
In a related development, the World Food Programme (WFP) has revealed that, for the first time, it has no prepositioned food stocks in Haiti as the hurricane season which runs from June to November begins.
The agency also reported that it lacks the financial resources necessary to respond swiftly in the event of an emergency weather incident.
While other UN agencies have stockpiled water and sanitation kits for 100,000 people and health supplies for 20,000, these provisions are insufficient without food, especially in the event of a major disaster.
“The current lack of contingency stocks and operational funds leaves Haiti’s most at-risk communities dangerously unprotected at a time of heightened vulnerability,” said UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq during a briefing on Tuesday.
More than half of Haiti’s population is already facing acute food insecurity, with malnutrition becoming increasingly widespread. Haiti is now one of only five countries globally experiencing famine-like conditions.
Ongoing gang violence in the capital and surrounding areas has displaced over one million people, further exacerbating hunger and limiting access to essential services such as clean water and healthcare.
UN agencies estimate that $908 million will be needed to maintain life-saving support in Haiti, but only $78 million in emergency funding has been received so far.
