The World Bank trimmed its global growth outlook due to sluggish growth in advanced economies, stubbornly low commodity prices, weak global trade and diminishing capital flows.
The global economy is forecast to grow 2.4 percent this year instead of the 2.9 percent projected in January, the bank said in the June Global Economic Prospects report released Wednesday.
The growth outlook for the next year was trimmed to 2.8 percent from 3.1 percent. Nonetheless, the pace of expansion is expected to pick up to 3 percent by 2018, as stabilizing commodity prices provide support to commodity exporting emerging markets.
The 2016 growth forecast for the U.S. was slashed to 1.9 percent in 2016 from 2.7 percent. Similarly, the projection for the next year was lowered to 2.2 percent from 2.4 percent.
The growth in the euro area is expected to remain unchanged at 1.6 percent this year and the next. It reflects downward revisions by 0.1 percentage point for both 2016 and 2017.
China is forecast to grow at 6.7 percent in 2016 and 6.5 percent next year. Both figures were left unrevised. The lender observed that a gradual domestic re-balancing is under way, with robust growth in services and policy support measures mitigating the slowdown in industrial activity.
The growth in the East Asia and Pacific region is projected to slow to an unrevised 6.3 percent rate in 2016. The region, excluding Chin,a is forecast to log an annual growth of 4.8 percent this year, unchanged from 2015.
India's robust economic expansion is expected to hold steady at 7.6 percent, before improving to 7.7 percent in 2017, it said. In January, the bank had projected 7.8 percent and 7.9 percent growth, respectively for 2016 and 2017.
Meanwhile, Brazil and Russia are forecast to remain in deeper recessions than forecast in January.
In an environment of anemic growth, the global economy faces pronounced risks, including a further slowdown in major emerging markets, sharp changes in financial market sentiment, geopolitical risks in different parts of the world and concerns about the effectiveness of monetary policy in spurring stronger growth, the World Bank noted.
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