Published on
20/05/2026 - 12:45 GMT+2
The United Nations has lowered its forecast for global economic growth and raised inflation projections for this year, responding to the Middle East crisis and rising oil prices.
UN economists said global GDP growth is now forecast at 2.5% for 2026, down from 2.7% in January, and could fall to just 2.1% "in a more adverse scenario".
That would be one of the weakest growth rates this century, outside of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global financial crisis of 2008, said Shantanu Mukherjee, director of economic analysis in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
