Global Economic Prospects

Abstract:

Global growth disappointed again in 2015, slowing to 2.4 percent, and is expected to recover at a slower pace than previously envisioned. Growth is projected to reach 2.9 percent in 2016, as a modest recovery in advanced economies continues and activity stabilizes among major commodity exporters, according to the World Bank’s January 2016 Global Economic Prospects. Forecasts are subject to substantial downside risks. A more protracted slowdown across large emerging markets could have substantial spillovers to other developing economies, and eventually hold back the recovery in advanced economies.

A broad-based slowdown across developing countries could pose a threat to hard-won gains in raising people out of poverty, the report warns.

"More than 40 percent of the world’s poor live in the developing countries where growth slowed in 2015," said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. "Developing countries should focus on building resilience to a weaker economic environment and shielding the most vulnerable. The benefits from reforms to governance and business conditions are potentially large and could help offset the effects of slow growth in larger economies."