It likened the current spike in energy and food prices to the oil shocks of the 1970s. But it foresees oil and other commodity prices both dropping 8% in 2023. The World Bank expects oil prices to surge 42% this year and for non-energy commodity prices to climb nearly 18%.
“There’s a severe risk of malnutrition and of deepening hunger and even of famine,’’ Malpass warned. Already-high commodity prices have gone even higher as a result, threatening the availability of affordable food in poor countries. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has severely disrupted global trade in energy and wheat, battering a global economy that had been recovering robustly from the coronavirus pandemic. The Chinese government is providing aid to ease the economic pain.Įmerging market and developing economies are collectively forecast to grow 3.4% this year, decelerating from a 6.6% pace in 2021. China’s zero-COVID policies, involving draconian lockdowns in Shanghai and other cities, brought economic life to a standstill. In China, the world’s second-biggest economy after the United States, the World Bank expects growth to slow to 4.3% from 8.1% last year. For the 19 European countries that share the euro currency, it downgraded the growth outlook to 2.5% this year from 5.4% last year and from the 4.2% it had expected in January.
The agency doesn't foresee a much brighter picture in 20: It predicts just 3% global growth for both years.įor the United States alone, the World Bank has slashed its growth forecast to 2.5% this year from 5.7% in 2021 and from the 3.7% it had forecast in January.