UN sees global economy growing 3% in 2019 but beset by risk

Tuesday, 22 January 2019 00:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

GENEVA (Reuters): The United Nations expects the global economy to grow 3.0% this year and in 2020, slightly below a 3.1% expansion in 2018, it said on Monday.

But urgent and concrete policy action is needed to put the world on track to meet the U.N.’s goals for eradicating poverty by 2030, it said in its annual economic forecast, the “World Economic Situation and Prospects”.

“There are plenty of yellow lights flashing and some of those yellow lights are almost certainly likely to turn red over the coming year, with very unpredictable consequences,” said U.N. economic agency UNCTAD’s Head of Globalisation and Development Strategies Richard Kozul-Wright.

“Growth is fragile, huge uncertainties remain, risks are looming. We have not broken away from the legacy of the financial crisis of 2008-2009. We are still in a new abnormal.”

The report said employment was rising but job quality remained low and far greater economic growth was needed in Africa to get people out of poverty.

More than 700 million people live below the extreme poverty line, defined as $1.90 per day in 2011 purchasing power parity, and half of them are in sub-Saharan Africa.

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