PARIS, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) — Global growth is expected to remain sluggish in the second half of 2022, before decelerating further in 2023 to reach an annual growth level of just 2.2 percent, the OECD revealed on Monday in its interim report on economic outlook.
“Combined with the still lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war is slowing growth and adding to price pressures, especially those of food and energy”, explains the Organization for Cooperation and Development Economics (OECD).
“Global GDP stagnated in the second quarter of 2022 and output fell in the G20 economies. Inflation persists longer than expected at a high level. In many economies, inflation reached, in the first half of 2022, a peak not seen since the 1980s. In view of the deterioration of recent indicators, the global economic outlook is darkening”.
Headline inflation is expected to peak this quarter in most major economies before declining in the last quarter of 2022 and throughout 2023 in the majority of G20 countries. But “annual inflation will remain well above central bank targets almost everywhere in 2023”, specifies the OECD.
The OECD underlines the considerable uncertainties surrounding this economic outlook, in particular the possibility of gas shortages with the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere.
“Without sufficient supply diversification and an orderly reduction in demand, shortages could cause global energy prices to spike, damage confidence, worsen financial conditions and require, for a time, to impose on companies a reduction in their gas consumption”, warns the report. End