Tough times

A third of the global economy will be in recession this year, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. Kristalina Georgieva said 2023 will be “tougher” than last year as the US, EU and China see their economies slow. It comes as the war in Ukraine, rising prices, higher interest rates and the spread of Covid in China weigh on the global economy.In October the IMF cut its global economic growth outlook for 2023. We expect one third of the world economy to be in recession, Georgieva said on the CBS news programme Face the Nation. Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people,”l she added.Katrina Ell, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, gave the BBC her assessment of the world economy. While our baseline avoids a global recession over the next year, odds of one are uncomfortably high. Europe, however, will not escape recession and the US is teetering on the verge,” she said.