2020.01.0904:02:00UTC+00Global Economy Set To Log Moderate Rebound In 2020: World Bank

The global economy is poised for a moderate rebound this year, following its weakest performance since the global financial crisis, the World Bank said in its Global Economic Prospects, released Thursday.

Global growth is forecast to rise to 2.5 percent in 2020 from 2.4 percent last year driven by recovery in trade and investment. Nonetheless, projections for both years were trimmed by 0.2 percentage points. For 2021, the lender forecasts 2.6 percent expansion.

The bank observed that the global recovery could be stronger if recent policy actions, particularly those that have mitigated trade tensions, lead to a sustained reduction in policy uncertainty.

According to semi-annual report, advanced economies will slow as a group to 1.4 percent from 1.6 percent, mainly reflecting lingering weakness in manufacturing. Emerging market and developing economies are forecast to grow at an accelerated pace of 4.1 percent after rising 3.5 percent in 2019.

Growth in United States is expected to ease to 1.8 percent this year and to 1.7 percent in 2021, World Bank said. However, the projections were raised by 0.1 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the euro area growth is projected to slow to 1 percent in 2020, which was 0.4 percentage point down from previous projections. Growth is forecast to recover moderately to an average of 1.3 percent in 2021-22.

At the same time, growth in Japan is expected to slow from 1.1 percent in 2019 to 0.7 percent in 2020. Growth in 2021-22 is expected to average around 0.5 percent.

Further, China's growth is seen at 5.9 percent this year versus 6.1 percent in 2019. The outlook for 2019 was lowered from 6.2 percent and that for 2020 from 6.1 percent. The rate is expected to ease further to 5.8 percent in 2021.

India's growth is expected to improve to 5.8 percent in 2020 and to 6.1 percent next year. The growth for 2019 was estimated at 5 percent.

The agency cautioned that the main feature that overshadows the global outlook is the wave of debt accumulation among emerging and developing economies. The lender urged governments to take steps to minimize risks associated with debt buildups. Another aspect disappointing the global growth was slowdown in productivity growth.