Global economic weakness persisted in 2024

Global growth in 2024 remained below historical averages. Key factors driving this trend included the persistence of inflation leading to tight monetary policies, geopolitical tensions, weaker-than-expected recovery in China, and rising global economic fragmentation.

In its April 2025 World Economic Outlook Report, the IMF estimated that global economic growth, which stood at 3.5% in 2023, declined to 3.3% in 2024. Due to escalating global trade tensions, growth is projected to slow to 2.8% in 2025, followed by a modest recovery to 3.0% in 2026, and then proceed on a path averaging 3.2% over the subsequent four years. Given that the global economy grew at an average annual rate of 3.7% during the 20 years preceding the pandemic (2000–2019), the IMF appears to foresee a prolonged period of weak growth extending at least through 2030.

Advanced economies, which grew by 1.7% in 2023, expanded by 1.8% in 2024. The overall deceleration in global growth was driven by emerging markets, where growth slowed from 4.7% in 2023 to 4.3% in 2024. In Asia specifically, growth declined from 6.1% in 2023 to 5.3% in 2024, largely due to the Chinese economy slowing from 5.4% to 5.0% over the same period.