The United Nations Trade and Development agency has projected that global economic growth will ease to 2.6% in 2026, down from 2.9% in 2025, with developing economies facing a sharper deceleration.
UNCTAD issued the projections in its Trade and Development Report 2026. The agency forecast that growth across developing economies is expected to decelerate to 4.0% in 2026, down from 4.7% in 2025 — a steeper decline than the global headline figure.
The gap between the two years' forecasts is wider for developing economies than for the world as a whole, indicating that the slowdown is not projected to hit all country groups equally.
These figures are as reported by Capital Ethiopia; The Abay Times did not review the full report.
Sources: Capital Ethiopia.