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Professor Jose Antonio Ocampo, Chair of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), addressed the ECOSOC High-Level Segment, presenting the key messages of the CDP’s 2025 report. Professor Ocampo stressed the need for strengthened multilateral action to face historical challenges and structural shifts, conveyed the CDP's recommendations on poverty measurement ahead of WSSD2, and reported on the need to improve support to least developed countries (LDCs), including graduating countries.
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Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Economic Analysis
The U.S. Government’s latest trade policy seeks to address its widening trade deficit, which has recently reached a historic annual high. Persistent trade deficits over the past decades, along with the resulting accumulation of external liabilities to finance them, have long been viewed as a key component of global imbalances.
For 153 countries, we estimate the potential of recovering/recycling six energy transition critical minerals—aluminium, cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earth elements—from their waste and scrap, if these countries have access to the latest technologies.
Following the unprecedented changes in the trade policy of the United States, LDCs must contend simultaneously with significantly higher bilateral tariffs, policy uncertainty, lower growth prospects in many importing countries, a potential re-alignment of supply chains, and a disruption to the existing
multilateral order.
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The U.S. Government’s latest trade policy seeks to address its widening trade deficit, which has recently reached a historic annual high. Persistent trade deficits over the past decades, along with the resulting accumulation of external liabilities to finance them, have long been viewed as a key component of global imbalances.
For 153 countries, we estimate the potential of recovering/recycling six energy transition critical minerals—aluminium, cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earth elements—from their waste and scrap, if these countries have access to the latest technologies.
Following the unprecedented changes in the trade policy of the United States, LDCs must contend simultaneously with significantly higher bilateral tariffs, policy uncertainty, lower growth prospects in many importing countries, a potential re-alignment of supply chains, and a disruption to the existing
multilateral order.
The global economic outlook as of mid-2025 has deteriorated notably, according to the latest World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) update. Global growth is now forecast to slow to 2.4 per cent in 2025, down from 2.9 per cent in 2024 and 0.4 percentage points below the January forecast.
