WORLD
World Bank lowered its forecast for global economic growth
Baku, June 14 (AZERTAC). The World Bank on Wednesday slightly scaled down its forecast of global economic growth rate to 2.2 percent for this year, 0.2 percentage point lower than its January forecast.
Risks from advanced economies have eased and growth is firming, despite ongoing contraction in the eurozone. The pick-up in developing countries, however, will be modest due to capacity constraints in several middle income countries, the Washington- based World Bank said in its newly-released Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report.
Global gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to expand about 2.2 percent this year and strengthen to 3.0 percent and 3.3 percent in 2014 and 2015, respectively, according to the World Bank`s flagship report.
Developing countries` GDP is now projected to grow around 5.1 percent this year, 0.4 percentage point lower than the World Bank`s January forecast, before strengthening to 5.6 percent and 5.7 percent in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
High-income countries` GDP is predicted to edge up 1.2 percent this year, slightly lower than the earlier estimate of 1.3 percent, before picking up pace to 2.0 percent in 2014 and 2.3 percent in 2015, noted the twice-yearly report.
"While there are markers of hope in the financial sector, the slowdown in the real economy is turning out to be unusually protracted," said Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank.