Africa’s efforts to narrow the income gap with advanced economies are at risk of stalling as weaker growth, rising debt burdens and recurring global shocks threaten to leave much of the developing world trapped in a “lost decade” of development, the World Bank has warned.
In its June 2026 Global Economic Prospects report released on Thursday, the Bank cut its global growth forecast for the year to 2.5 percent. It cautioned that the outlook could deteriorate further if disruptions from the Middle East conflict spread through energy markets and global financial systems.
The warning carries particular significance for Africa, where policymakers have spent much of the past five years battling inflation, currency weakness, rising debt burdens and sluggish investment.
“Barring a miracle, the 2020s will prove to be what their ominous opening foreshadowed: a lost decade—not just for a couple of outliers, but for dozens of developing economies,” said Indermit Gill, senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank Group in the report.
Gill warned that nearly half of developing economies have failed to make progress on one of the most fundamental promises of development.
