Global perspectives at mid-year

Challenges increase for the world's economic and socio-political prospects

Last December, I had predicted that calendar year 2023 would be worse for the world economy and polity than the already bad 2022 (“Will 2023 be any better?”, Business Standard, December 15, 2022). At mid-year, in economic terms, it is certainly shaping up that way. The IMF’s April World Economic Outlook (WEO) projects global growth, at market exchange rates, at a low 2.4 per cent, significantly lower than the 3 per cent recorded in 2022, though a little higher than the 2.1 per cent foreseen in the October 2022 WEO (mainly because of anticipation of somewhat better performance of the