World Bank

Arch-globalist and head of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab has reportedly informed staff that he will be stepping down as WEF executive chairman.

The 86-year-old self-appointed Sultan of Davos sent an email to staff on Tuesday announcing that he will no longer run the world’s most prominent globalist advocacy group although he will likely stay on in some non-executive role, the website Semafor claimed.

The global economy will slow in 2024 for the third straight year and appears headed for its weakest half-decade since the early 1990s, the World Bank said Tuesday in its latest annual forecast.

While higher interest rates appear to be bringing inflation under control without the serious financial crisis or soaring unemployment that many had feared, the global economy’s overall performance is lagging, said Indermit Gill, the bank’s top economist.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its global growth outlook for the year, warning the world economy faces the increased risk of a "hard landing" due to continued fallout from a spate of bank failures, higher interest rates and stubborn inflation. 

The Washington-based institution said in its latest World Economic Outlook that global gross domestic product will grow by just 2.8% this year – which represents a 0.1 percentage point decline from its previous forecast in January – before rising to 3% in 2024.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday rejected growing pessimism about the direction of the global economy, cautioning, “I wouldn’t overdo the negativism.”

The International Monetary Fund warned earlier in the day of an “anemic outlook” for the economy, thanks to higher interest rates aimed at taming inflation, deteriorating financial conditions amid banking turmoil, the war in Ukraine and geo-economic fragmentation.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday released its weakest global growth expectations for the medium term in more than 30 years.

The Washington, D.C.-based institution said that five years from now, global growth is expected to be around 3% — the lowest medium-term forecast in an IMF World Economic Outlook report since 1990.

“The world economy is not currently expected to return over the medium term to the rates of growth that prevailed before the pandemic,” the fund said in its latest economic outlook.

World Bank Group President David Malpass said on Monday that the lender has revised its 2023 global growth outlook slightly upward to 2% from a January forecast of 1.7% but the slowdown from stronger 2022 growth will increase debt distress for developing countries.

Malpass told a media briefing that the upward revision was due to an improved outlook for China's recovery from COVID-19 lockdowns, with growth now pegged at 5.1% this year compared to 4.3% in the bank's January Global Economic Prospects report.

World Bank President David Malpass said Wednesday that he will resign as head of the influential lender before the end of his term.

Why it matters: Malpass' exit, expected by the end of June, comes months after calls grew from him to step down after he declined to acknowledge the scientific consensus that fossil fuels were warming the planet.

Malpass, a holdover from the Trump administration who led the World Bank since 2019, in a statement did not fully explain the reasoning for the early departure, saying he would "pursue new challenges."

The global economy will come “perilously close” to a recession this year, led by weaker growth in all the world’s top economies — the United States, Europe and China — the World Bank warned Tuesday.

The World Bank cut its forecast for global economic expansion in 2022 further, warning that several years of above-average inflation and below-average growth lie ahead with potentially destabilizing consequences for low- and middle-income economies. 

The global economy may be headed for years of weak growth and rising prices, a toxic combination that will test the stability of dozens of countries still struggling to rebound from the pandemic, the World Bank warned Tuesday.

Not since the 1970s — when twin oil shocks sapped growth and lifted prices, giving rise to the malady known as “stagflation” — has the global economy faced such a challenge.