WASHINGTON: Global growth should remain stable this year and next, but at recent historic lows, the World Bank said Thursday, expressing particular concern about growth in developing countries.

Growth should hit 2.7pc in 2025 and 2026, in line with the level reached last year, the World Bank anno­unced in a new report, adding that inflation and interest rates should “decline gradually” over this period.

“Growth in developing economies is also expected to hold steady at about 4 per cent over the next two years,” the Bank said, noting that this was a weaker performance than before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Growth at this level would be “insufficient to foster the progress necessary to alleviate poverty and achieve wider development goals,” it added.

“Most of the forces that once aided their rise have dissipated,” World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said in a statement, referring to the world’s developing economies. “In their place have come daunting headwinds: high debt burdens, weak investment and productivity growth, and the rising costs of climate change,” he added.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2025