U.S. Growth Likely tTo Slow To 1.6% This Year, OECD Says

U.S. economic growth will slow to 1.6% this year from 2.8% last year, as President Donald Trump’s erratic trade wars disrupt global commerce, drive up costs, and leave businesses and consumers paralyzed by uncertainty, Paul Wiseman reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Trump's tariffs raise costs for consumers and for U.S. manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials and components.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) forecast on Tuesday that the U.S. economy — the world’s largest — will slow further to just 1.5% in 2026.

Trump’s policies have raised average U.S. tariff rates from around 2.5% when he returned to the White House to 15.4% — the highest since 1938, according to the OECD.

These tariffs raise costs for consumers and for U.S. manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials and components.

Global economic growth is expected to slow to just 2.9% this year and remain at that level in 2026, according to the OECD. That marks a notable deceleration from 3.3% growth in 2024 and 3.4% in 2023.

The world economy has proven remarkably resilient in recent years, continuing to expand steadily — though unspectacularly — in the face of shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, global trade and the economic outlook have been clouded by Trump’s sweeping tariffs, the unpredictable manner of their implementation, and the growing threat of retaliation from other countries.