World Economic Situation and Prospects: update as of mid-2009

June 2009, New York.

This World Economic Situation and Prospects Update 2009 comes in the midst of the global financial crisis. Faced with the worst recession since World War II, the United Nations baseline forecast for world economic growth has been revised downwards compared with the pessimistic scenario of the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2009 published in January.

The report finds that the world economy is expected to shrink by 2.6 per cent in 2009 after an expansion of 2.1 per cent in 2008 and nearly 4 per cent per year during 2004-2007.

While a mild recovery in growth of World Gross Product (WGP) is possible for 2010, the Report says that a more prolonged global recession is also possible if the vicious cycle between financial destabilization and retrenchment in the real economy cannot be sufficiently contained and concerted global policy actions are not taken.