World Bank cuts 2023 economic growth forecasts to 1.7%

The World Bank (WB) slashed its growth forecasts for most countries and regions to 1.7 percent for 2023, compared to 3 percent last June, due to continued inflation, high interest rates and the effects of the war in Ukraine.

That would it would be the third-weakest annual expansion in three decades, behind only the deep recessions that resulted from the 2008 global financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

The international institution revised its expectations for almost all developed countries, and for two-thirds of emerging or developing countries.

United States in particular recording weak growth (0.7 percent) with no growth in Europe before a weak recovery in 2024 of +2.7 percent, the institution added.

“The crisis facing development is intensifying” and the setbacks to global prosperity will likely persist, World Bank President David Malpass wrote in a foreword to the bank’s semi-annual Global Economic Prospects report.