UN drops forecast for global economic growth in 2022 to 3.1%

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is significantly lowering its forecast for global economic growth this year from 4% to 3.1%. In a new report Wednesday, it says the war in Ukraine has triggered increasing global food and commodity prices and exacerbated inflationary pressures, upending the fragile recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The mid-2022 forecast says the downgrade in growth prospects is broad-based, including the world’s largest economies — the United States, China and most significantly the European Union. It also affects the majority of other developed and developing countries. And it warned that the 3.1% forecast “faces significant downside risks.”