Global growth poised to slow over next two years, says World Bank

Bloomberg

Global growth is set to slow over the next two years as central banks raise borrowing rates and US fiscal stimulus starts to fade, the World Bank said.
The world economy will grow 3.1 percent this year and 3 percent in 2019, the development lender said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report. Both forecasts were unchanged from January, the last time the Washington-based bank updated its projections. About half the world’s economies are accelerating, underscoring the breadth of the upswing.
Growth will further slow in 2020 as the world economy approaches full output, trade and investment growth wanes, and financial conditions tighten, the World Bank said. Risks are tilted to the downside, and include the threat of a sudden contraction in global credit and a spike in protectionism.
“We’re asking whether the tide is now turning,” Ayhan Kose, director of the World Bank Group’s Development Prospects Group, said in an interview. “This broad-based upturn story we had is no longer there. So we are expecting a slowdown.”
Investors are weighing the solid performance of the global economy against a host of threats, including interest-rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, the prospect of a trade war between America and China, and the election of a euro-skeptic government in Italy.