UN revises 2024 global growth forecast to 2.7% from 2.4%

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - The UN revised its global economic growth forecast for 2024 to 2.7%, according to the World Economic Situation and Prospects report released Thursday.

The forecast is a 0.3 percentage points upward revision from an earlier estimate of 2.4% in January.

The forecast for 2025 was also revised up 0.1 percentage points to 2.8% from the January expectation of 2.7%.

"Global economic prospects have improved since January, with major economies avoiding a severe downturn, bringing down inflation without increasing unemployment," said the report. "However, the outlook is only cautiously optimistic."

The organization, however, warned that higher-for-longer interest rates, debt sustainability challenges, continuing geopolitical tensions and climate risks continue to pose challenges to global growth, as they threaten decades of development gains, especially for least developed countries.

"The upward revisions mainly reflect a better outlook in the United States, where the latest forecast points to 2.3 per cent growth in 2024, and several large emerging economies, notably Brazil, India and the Russian Federation," said the report. "The outlook for China registers a small uptick with growth now expected to be 4.8 per cent in 2024."

The outlook for Africa, however, has deteriorated, while its expected growth lowered 0.2 percentage points for 2024, it added.

Türkiye's growth is projected to slow from 4.5% in 2023 to 3.2% in 2024, according to the UN.

"The rapid devaluation of the Turkish lira added to inflationary pressures, pushing the monetary authorities to resort to tightening measures. Amid softening domestic demand, which also led to reduced imports, the current account deficit narrowed in early 2024," it said.