Washington, United States — The World Bank on Tuesday raised its global growth forecast for 2026 but warned of a widening gap in living standards internationally, alongside cooler trade and demand.
The bank expects world GDP growth of 2.6 percent this year, according to its latest global economic prospects report. The figure is 0.2 percentage points higher than what it projected in June.
But the rate still marks a slowdown from the 2.7 percent pace seen in 2025, with the World Bank warning that the 2020s are “on track to be the weakest decade for global growth since the 1960s.”
The global economy has been more resilient than expected over the last year, the report said, despite a “historic escalation in trade tensions and policy uncertainty.”
US President Donald Trump returned to power last year, unleashing sweeping tariffs on US trading partners, roiling supply chains and increasing economic uncertainty.
The resilience reflected conditions like a “significant front-loading of trade” as US companies ramped up imports ahead of new duties kicking in, alongside a surge in investments relating to artificial intelligence, the bank added.
But global trade growth is expected to “decelerate markedly in 2026, as stockpiling fades and the impact of tariff measures builds,” the World Bank said.
As countries adjust and policy uncertainty recedes, the bank anticipates that trade growth will firm up again in 2027.
The overall tepid pace of growth, however, is expanding the gap in living standards globally.
Additionally, “over the coming years, the world economy is set to grow slower than it did in the troubled 1990s — while carrying record levels of public and private debt,” warned World Bank Chief Economist Indermit Gill.
“To avert stagnation and joblessness, governments in emerging and advanced economies must aggressively liberalize private investment and trade, rein in public consumption, and invest in new technologies and education,” he said.
