HELSINKI: The Bank of Finland said Monday that global growth in 2015 was the slowest since 2009, and there is no sign of strong improvement in the coming years.
The Finnish central bank singled out the “disappointing performances” of emerging economies, and attributed the reason to the low oil prices. Among BRICS nations, (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), Russia and Brazil in particular are slipping into deep recession, said the bank.
Global growth in 2016 will be 2.8 percent, almost at the same level of 2015. It will accelerate to 3.2 percent in 2017-2018, when recovery in emerging economies is expected to pick up.
Forecasts for the United States and the EU, which includes 19 eurozone member states, as well as Sweden, Denmark and Britain, are more moderate. The bank downgraded the growth rate of the United States in 2016 to 2.2 percent from 3.0 percent in the previous forecast, and in the EU from 1.8 percent to 1.4 percent.
