Global economy losing steam
Spreading geo-political rift, higher interest rates slowing down global economic growth rate to 2.9% in 2024
Decelerating For Long
♦ World yet to fully mend from a devastating, but short-lived Covid-19 recession in 2020
♦ Pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war slashed worldwide economic output by $3.7 trn in 3 yrs
♦ Global economy grew 3.5% in 2022
♦ World economy was remarkable resilient to higher interest rates
Bangkok: The world economy has lost momentum from the impact of higher interest rates, the invasion of Ukraine and widening geopolitical rifts, and it now faces new uncertainty from the war between Israel and Hamas militants, International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned. The IMF on Tuesday said it expects global economic growth to slow to 2.9 per cent in 2024 from an expected three per cent this year. The forecast for next year is down a notch from the three per cent it predicted back in July. The deceleration comes at a time when the world has yet to fully mend from a devastating, but short-lived Covid-19 recession in 2020 and now could see fallout from the Middle East conflict — particularly to oil prices.
A series of previous shocks, including the pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, has slashed worldwide economic output by about $3.7 trillion over the past three years compared with pre-Covid trends.
“The global economy is limping along, not sprinting,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said at a news conference during the organisation’s annual meeting in Marrakech, Morocco.
