Global economy risks falling into renewed recession

“We have identified three major economic risks,” said Pingfan Hong, Chief of the Global Economic Monitoring Unit of DESA’s Development Policy and Analysis Division, as the World Economic Outlook for 2013 was revealed on 18 December 2012. Mr. Hong pointed to the deterioration of the euro crisis, the US fiscal cliff and a possible hard landing for some large developing countries. Read more

Putting commitments into actions after Rio+20

The Rio+20 Conference, which took place in June last year, launched various processes as a result of the outcome document “The Future We Want”. Activities are now under way to make sure that commitments are put into actions. On 30 November, the General Assembly’s Second Committee also adopted an important resolution on sustainable development, providing specific timelines for implementation. Read more

Removing barriers for an inclusive society accessible to all

“Persons with disabilities have a significant positive impact on society, and their contributions can be even greater if we remove barriers to their participation. With more than one billion persons with disabilities in our world today, this is more important than ever,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) on 3 December. Read more

Technical reports

World Economic Situation and Prospects 2013 (WESP)

On 18 December, the first chapter of the World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP), the Global Economic Outlook, was pre-released in New York. According to the report, growth of the world economy has weakened considerably during 2012 and is expected to remain subdued in the coming two years. This pace of growth will be far from sufficient to overcome the continued jobs crisis that many countries are still facing. Read more

Paul Cheung, Director of DESA’s Statistics Division, will retire at the end of December 2012. Since his appointment at the United Nations in 2004, Mr. Cheung has provided strong leadership to the development of the global statistical system. The UN Statistical Commission is now universally recognized as its apex entity. In 2012, there were 136 member states attending the Commission, an 80% increase from 2004. Read more