World Bank predicts fragile, uncertain recovery
(01-16 09:21)
Developing countries, led by China, will remain the main engines of global economic growth in 2013 as Europe and the United States plod along, the World Bank said in a report.
For this year, the development lender lowered its forecast for global growth to 2.4 percent, from a June estimate of 3 percent, saying the economic recovery remains “fragile and uncertain’’ despite lower financial risks, AFP reports.
The report, Global Economic Prospects, highlights the two-speed growth gap between high-income and developing countries. The high-income countries at the center of the financial crisis were projected to produce gross domestic product growth at a tepid 1.3 percent rate in 2013.
Developing countries would see a more robust 5.5 percent GDP growth, the World Bank estimated, rebounding from a 2012 slowdown to the slowest pace in 10 years amid the euro zone public debt crisis.
“This is going to be an interesting year where we do expect that some of the global driving is going to move on to developing countries,’’ World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu said in a conference call.
Again leading the growth pack, China's economy was expected to expand 8.4 percent this year after slowing below 8 percent in 2012.
The World Bank also predicted a sharp rebound in Brazil, to a pace of 3.4 percent after a difficult 2012 when growth stalled below 1 percent.
The Washington-based institution warned that strong growth in the developing countries was not guaranteed and that they should “maintain the reform momentum that underpinned the acceleration of growth during the 1990s and 2000s.’
According to the World Bank, the US economy will slow to 1.9 percent growth this year from 2.2 percent in 2012.
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