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UN DESA downgrades global growth, warns trade uncertainty and tariffs will hamper recovery
Summary
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs said global growth forecasts were cut for 2025 and 2026 and highlighted rising US tariff levels, elevated trade-policy uncertainty and mounting public finance pressures that will hit vulnerable countries hardest.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs on Wednesday released a midyear update to its World Economic Situation and Prospects report, saying global growth has been downgraded and that heightened trade-policy uncertainty and higher tariff levels are weighing on investment, inflation and development prospects.
"We are forecasting global economic growth at 2.4% for 2025 and 2.5% for 2026," said Shantanu Mukherjee, director of the Economic Analysis and Policy Division at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. He told reporters the figure represents a downward revision of 0.4 percentage points for each year from the department's January projection.
The revision matters because slower growth is concentrated among vulnerable countries, Mukherjee said. "Among the most severely hit are the least developed countries, whose growth prospects for 2025 have fallen from 4.6 to…
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