World Bank Group remains optimistic of the year ahead despite a turbulent 2022, according to Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics Indermit Gill.

“I think that the last two years will become a case study of how the world forgot Economics 101,” he said in the World Bank’s latest podcast.

“ I think it was because of fear, it was because of disease, it was because of war, but it was also because of impatience,” Gill stated, hoping 2023 will not be part of this case study.

In December 2022, Gill said that the group expects the global economy to grow by less than 3%. 

In January 2022, the World Bank expected the global economy to grow at around 4%.

“We expected the US and the European Union to grow by about that much too. And we thought China would grow at 5%, Indonesia by a bit more, and India would grow at nearly 9%,” Gill said in 2022 in Review podcast.

“So, if you look at things today, we expect the global economy to grow by less than 3%, so we’ve sliced off about a quarter of the expected growth, and next year will be even worse,” he added.

Meanwhile, CNBC reported that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva anticipated growth to bottom out in 2023.

“Our projection is that we will go by half a percentage point down vis-a-vis 2022. The good news though is that we expect growth to bottom out this year and 2024 to be a year in which we finally see the world economy on an upside,” she stated.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com )