OECD lowers global growth forecast

STRIKING a distinctly cautious note about global economic prospects, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) announced yesterday a "significant" downward revision of its earlier growth forecasts for this year and the next, warning about the domination of downside risks and recommending policy actions to counter these.

Global growth forecasts have been "revised down (since May) by just under one half of a percentage point for this year and 2014 to 2.7 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively", it said, adding that global growth should pick up to 3.9 per cent in 2015.

Heightened caution is almost entirely due to weaker prospects in many emerging economies, said OECD chief economist and deputy secretary-general Pier Carlo Padoan. He added that the earlier situation, in which emerging economies boosted the global economy, has reversed and that they are now exerting an overall drag.