With global growth stabilizing for the first time in three years, inflation reaching a three-year low and financial conditions brightening, the global economy seems to be on its final approach for a “soft landing.”
But this positive news cannot obscure the grim reality: More than four years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the world — especially developing economies — has yet to embark on a promising path toward prosperity.
As a new World Bank Group report shows, the rate at which annual global growth is stabilizing — 2.7%, on average, through 2026 — is significantly lower than the 3.1% average in the pre-pandemic decade. That is insufficient to support progress on key development goals. By the end of this year, one in four developing economies will be poorer than it was on the eve of the pandemic. In 2024-25, most of the world’s economies are set to grow more slowly than they did in the decade before COVID-19.
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