UN Forecasts Weak Global Economic Growth This Year

The United Nations (UN) has issued a somber global economic forecast for 2024, highlighting challenges from escalating conflicts, sluggish global trade, persistently high interest rates, and increasing climate disasters, Edith M. Lederer reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The report emphasized that more investments are needed to revive growth.

In its flagship economic report, the UN projected that global economic growth would slow to 2.4% this year from an estimated 2.7% in 2023, exceeding expectations. However, both figures are still below the 3% growth rate before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

The UN forecast is lower than those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in late November.

The IMF expects global growth to slow from an expected 3% in 2023 to 2.9% in 2024, while the OECD, comprising 38 mainly developed countries, estimates that global growth would also slow from an expected 2.9% in 2023 to 2.7% in 2024.

The UN report, "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2024," warned that the prospects of prolonged tighter credit conditions and higher borrowing costs would impact a world economy burdened with debt, especially in poorer developing countries.

The report emphasized that more investments are needed to revive growth.

Shantanu Mukherjee, director of the UN’s Economic Analysis and Policy Division, stated that fears of a recession in 2023 were averted mainly due to the US, the world’s largest economy, curbing high inflation without putting the brakes on the economy.

However, he added during a news conference launching the report, “We’re still not out of the danger zone.”

WEEKLY FEATURE : Jose Mari Chan And The Christmas Anthem