World Bank cuts global growth forecast as trade tensions heighten uncertainty

Straits Times

a day ago

The World Bank logo is seen at the 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, U.S., April 13, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
An American flag flutters over a ship and shipping containers at the Port of Los Angeles, in San Pedro California, U.S., May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake
FILE PHOTO: A drone view shows electric vehicles (EV) for export and containers sitting at a port in Shanghai, China April 13, 2025. China Daily via REUTERS/File Photo
WASHINGTON - The World Bank on Tuesday slashed its global growth forecast for 2025 by four-tenths of a percentage point to 2.3%, saying that higher tariffs and heightened uncertainty posed a "significant headwind" for nearly all economies.
In its twice-yearly Global Economic Prospects report, the global lender lowered its forecasts for nearly 70% of all economies - including the U.S., China and Europe, as well as six emerging market regions - from the levels it projected six months ago before U.S. President Donald Trump took office.
Trump has upended global trade with a series of on-again, off-again tariff hikes that have increased the effective U.S. tariff rate from below 3% to the mid-teens - its highest level in almost a century - and triggered retaliation by China and other countries.
The World Bank is the latest body to cut its growth forecast as a result of Trump's erratic trade policies, although U.S. officials insist the negative consequences will be offset by a surge in investment and still-to-be approved tax cuts.
It stopped short of forecasting a recession, but said global economic growth this year would be the weakest outside of a recession since 2008. By 2027, global gross domestic product growth was expected to average just 2.5%, the slowest pace of any decade since the 1960s.
The report forecast that global trade would grow by 1.8% in 2025, down from 3.4% in 2024 and roughly a third of its 5.9% level in the 2000s. The forecast is based on tariffs in effect as of late May, including a 10% U.S. tariff on imports from most countries. It excludes increases that were announced by Trump in April and then postponed until July 9 to allow for negotiations.
The World Bank said global inflation was expected to reach 2.9% in 2025, remaining above pre-COVID-19 levels, given tariff increases and tight labor markets.
"Risks to the global outlook remain tilted decidedly to the downside," it wrote. The lender said its models showed that a further increase of 10 percentage points in average U.S. tariffs, on top of the 10% rate already implemented, and proportional retaliation by other countries, could shave another half of a percentage point off the outlook for 2025.
Such an escalation in trade barriers would result "in global trade seizing up in the second half of this year ... accompanied by a widespread collapse in confidence, surging uncertainty and turmoil in financial markets," the report said.
Nonetheless, it said the risk of a global recession was less than 10%.
'FOG ON A RUNWAY'
Top officials from the U.S. and China are meeting in London this week to try to defuse a trade dispute that has widened from tariffs to restrictions over rare earth minerals, threatening a global supply chain shock and slower growth.
"Uncertainty remains a powerful drag, like fog on a runway. It slows investment and clouds the outlook," World Bank Deputy Chief Economist Ayhan Kose told Reuters in an interview.
But Kose said there were signs of increased dialogue on trade that could help dispel uncertainty, and supply chains were adapting to a new global trade map, not collapsing. Global trade growth could modestly rebound in 2026 to 2.4%, and developments in artificial intelligence could also boost growth, he said.
"We think that eventually the uncertainty will decline," Kose said. "Once the type of fog we have lifts, the trade engine may start running again, but at a slower pace."
Kose said while things could get worse, trade was continuing and China, India and others were still delivering robust growth. Many countries were also discussing new trade partnerships that could pay dividends later, he said.
WHITE HOUSE PUSHES BACK
The World Bank said the global outlook had "deteriorated substantially" since January, mainly due to advanced economies, which are now seen growing by just 1.2%, down half a percentage point, after expanding by 1.7% in 2024.
The U.S. forecast was slashed by nine-tenths of a percentage point from its January forecast to 1.4%, and the 2026 outlook was lowered by four-tenths of a percentage point to 1.6%. Rising trade barriers, "record-high uncertainty" and a spike in financial market volatility were expected to weigh on private consumption, trade and investment, it said.
The White House pushed back against the forecast, citing recent economic data that it said pointed to a stronger economy.
"The World Bank's prognostications are untethered to the data: investment in real business equipment surged by nearly 25% in Q1 of 2025; real disposable personal income grew by a robust 0.7% month-over-month in April; and Americans have now seen three consecutive expectation-beating jobs and inflation reports," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said. He added that a sweeping budget package currently making its way through Congress would provide tax relief and "further turbo-charge America's economic resurgence under President Trump."
The World Bank cut growth estimates in the euro zone by three-tenths of a percentage point to 0.7% and in Japan by half a percentage point to 0.7%.
It said emerging markets and developing economies were expected to grow by 3.8% in 2025 versus 4.1% in the forecast in January.
Poor countries would suffer the most, the report said. By 2027, developing economies' per capita GDP would be 6% below pre-pandemic levels, and it could take these countries - minus China - two decades to recoup the economic losses of the 2020s.
Mexico, heavily dependent on trade with the U.S., saw its growth forecast cut by 1.3 percentage points to 0.2% in 2025.
The World Bank left its forecast for China unchanged at 4.5% from January, saying Beijing still had monetary and fiscal space to support its economy and stimulate growth. REUTERS
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