2020s on Course To Be Weakest Decade for Global Economy Since 1960s, Says World Bank

The World Bank sharply reduced its global economic growth forecast for 2025 to 2.3% from 2.7%, warning that the current decade is on track to become the weakest for the global economy since the 1960s. The Washington-based lender attributed the downgrade to mounting costs from 'international discord -- about trade, in particular,' as Donald Trump's tariff policies create unprecedented uncertainty.

The revised forecast would mark the slowest growth rate outside full-blown recessions since 2008. Even with a modest recovery to 2.4% expected in 2026, the bank characterized the outlook as merely 'tepid.' Chief economist Indermit Gill said 'outside of Asia, the developing world is becoming a development-free zone.' Growth in developing economies has steadily declined from 6% annually in the 2000s to 5% in the 2010s, now falling below 4% in the 2020s. The bank said that 'many of the forces behind the great economic miracle of the last 50 years' have reversed, with more than half of low-income countries either in debt distress or at high risk.

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