By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- The World Bank Group on Tuesday said forecast for developing countries growth rate is now down 4.8 percent this year from its January estimate of 5.3 percent.
The World Bank in its Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report, said developing countries are headed for a year of disappointing growth, ‘’as first quarter weakness in 2014 has delayed an expected pick-up in economic activity,’’ the report said.
Jim Kim Yong, President of the World Bank said growth rates in the developing world remain far too modest to create the kind of jobs need to improve the lives of the poorest 40 percent.
“Clearly, countries need to move faster and invest more in domestic structural reforms to get broad-based economic growth to levels needed to end extreme poverty in our generation,” Yong said.
According to him, signs point to strengthening in 2015 and 2016 to 5.4 and 5.5 percent, respectively. ‘’China is expected to grow by 7.6 percent this year, but this will depend on the success of rebalancing efforts. If a hard landing occurs, the reverberations across Asia would be widely felt,’’ the World Bank president affirmed.
Yong also said that bad weather in the United States (US), the crisis in Ukraine, rebalancing in China, political strife in several middle-income economies, slow progress on structural reform, and capacity constraints are all contributing to a third straight year of sub 5 percent growth for the developing countries as a whole.
