Geneva, Oct. 29, (dpa/GNA) – A UN trade body sees global growth at 2.7% for this year and next, down from an average 3% in the period 2001 to 2019.
This would hit poorer countries hard, UNCTAD, the UN organization that focuses on the trade of developing countries, said in Geneva on Tuesday.
Countries with resources needed for the green transition could benefit from global trade, it said. These include rare earths, cobalt, lithium and nickel.
But new ways of thinking were needed to help poorer countries at a time of low growth, high debt, lacking investment and growing protectionism in richer countries, UNCTAD said.
The organization is placing hopes on a proposed UN convention on global tax collaboration to counter tax evasion and illegal financial flows and release money for development.
In addition, the UN trade body said that a global security network is needed for indebted poor countries to make liquidity available without the austerity imposed as a rule by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
UNCTAD noted a definite decline in growth in low-income countries to 4.1% on average from an average annual figure of 6.6% between 2003 and 2013.
A large part of this was due to China, which is seen by the UN as a developing country, implying that the situation for many poor countries was even worse, UNCTAD said.
GNA