The world economy continues to grow at a moderate and uneven pace, encumbered by both
the legacies of the global financial crisis and a number of new challenges. The global growth
is projected to strengthen in 2015-2016, to a pace of 3.1 per cent and 3.4 per cent,
respectively, up from the estimated rate of 2.6 per cent in 2014. This forecast is, however,
subject to significant uncertainties and risks.
Six years through the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the majority of both developed
and developing countries are seeing their GDP growth on a markedly lower path than they
were prior to the crisis. While developed economies have indeed in 2014 all registered
positive growth for the first time since 2011, growth in the euro area remains fragile and the
momentum in Japan is also tapering off. Among developing countries and economies in
transition, it is worrisome to see a sharp deceleration in a number of large emerging
economies, particularly in Latin America and the Commonwealth of Independent States. A
number of these economies continue to face various country-specific challenges, including
structural imbalances, infrastructural bottlenecks, increased financial risks, incoherent
macroeconomic management as well as geopolitical and political tensions.