UN report: Global economic outlook worsens, facing high uncertainty

Golden Finance reports that the United Nations has released the "Mid Year Update on Global Economic Situation and Prospects 2025" report. The report points out that the global economic outlook has significantly deteriorated since the January 2025 forecast. The increase in tariffs and trade policy uncertainty have put pressure on the supply chain, pushed up production costs, led to a slowdown in corporate investment, and affected both developed and developing economies. The report predicts that global economic growth will slow down to 2.4% in 2025, a significant decline from the 2.9% growth rate in 2024. Developing countries that rely heavily on trade face multiple challenges such as reduced exports, falling commodity prices, tightened financing environment, and increased debt burden. The sluggish global growth further hinders the achievement of sustainable development goals, exacerbates poverty and inequality, and limits investment in green transformation. In terms of international trade, global trade growth is expected to plummet from 3.3% in 2024 to 1.6% in 2025. After the short-term push to avoid tariffs, there may be a contraction in commodity trade in the second half of 2025. Although digitalization drives resilience in service trade, overall trade weakness will affect demand for related services such as transportation and tourism.