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World Economic Situation and Prospects: August 2025 Briefing, No. 193

Gold reserves are increasing at central banks Central banks around the world traditionally hold international reserves to facilitate exchange rate management, meet external obligations, maintain a buffer against external shocks, and support economic and financial stability. Among the components of these reserves, such as foreign currency-denominated assets, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), and others, gold has traditionally held an important role, with a share that has recently begun to rise after a gradual decline (figure 1). Under the gold standard, which dominated the global economy until the First World War, currency values were pegged to a fixed quantity of gold. As a result, central…
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World Economic Situation and Prospects: July 2025 Briefing, No. 192

Understanding the external imbalances of the United States Introduction On 2 April 2025, the Government of the United States announced a universal ‘reciprocal tariff’ of 10 per cent on most of its trading partners, which came into effect on 5 April, under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) (The White House, 2025). In addition, over 80 countries are subject to further tariffs, potentially taking effect on 1 August 2025, with rates largely based on their bilateral trade balances with the United States. This reciprocal tariff policy is primarily grounded in the view that persistent goods trade deficits have significantly contributed to the erosion of the…
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World Economic Situation and Prospects: July 2025 Briefing, No. 191

Tariff shocks and graduation
from the least developed country category Background The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) category was created by the United Nations in 1971 to focus attention on a subset of developing countries that faced greater challenges to progress based on a multi-dimensional assessment. Membership in this category is reviewed triennially by an expert body of the United Nations, the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), which makes recommendations on graduation or inclusion based on development progress assessed against three criteria—per capita income, an index of human assets, and a vulnerability index encompassing environmental and economic risks —along with…
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2025 Reports of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly

Unilateral economic measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries 80th session, agenda item 16(a)
Macroeconomic policy questions: international trade and development
  Annex: Replies received from Member States Andorra Belarus Cambodia China Cuba Ethiopia Indonesia Namibia Peru Qatar Russian Federation Syrian Arab Republic Tanzania, United Republic of Tunisia Zimbabwe European Union
Cover of World Economic Situation and Prospects: June 2025 Briefing, No. 190

World Economic Situation and Prospects: June 2025 Briefing, No. 190


Global macroeconomic outlook 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 (figure 1) This downward revision primarily reflects heightened trade tensions and intensified policy uncertainty, which are expected to strain global supply chains, raise production costs, and delay critical investment decisions, besides fuelling financial market volatility (figure 2).  According to UN DESA estimates, the effective tariff rate of the United…
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CDP Issue Brief No 2: Eradicating poverty effectively: concise, strategic data to tackle the greatest global challenge

In this second CDP Issue Brief, Sabina Alkire discusses the potential of data to catalyze poverty eradication and explains the importance of multidimensional poverty measures alongside monetary measures. She makes five pragmatic recommendations for the Second World Summit on Social Development (WSSD2) that would empower actors, improve the cost-effectiveness of interventions and make progress visible.
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World Economic Situation and Prospects as of mid-2025 Cover

World Economic Situation and Prospects as of mid-2025

The world economy is at a precarious moment. Heightened trade tensions, along with policy uncertainty, have significantly weakened the global economic outlook for 2025. Higher tariffs—resulting in a significant increase in the effective tariff rate in the United States of America—are likely to strain global supply chains, drive up production costs and delay critical investment decisions, while also contributing to financial market volatility. Global economic growth is now projected 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. The downward revisions in growth forecasts are broad-based, affecting both developed and…
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World Economic Situation and Prospects as of mid-2025
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World Economic Situation and Prospects: April 2025 Briefing, No. 189

Navigating through an inflationary world The current inflation landscape Inflation has once again become a central topic among academics, policymakers, and in the daily lives of citizens. For much of the past two decades, inflation remained relatively low and stable in most developed and developing economies, even as a few countries experienced high inflation amid economic and financial crises or macroeconomic mismanagement. Between 2000 and 2020, global inflation averaged 3.4 per cent, compared to 8.0 per cent in the 1980s and 7.1 per cent in the 1990s. Even in developing countries, where inflation is typically higher and more volatile, it followed a downward trend since the mid-1990s,…
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2025 Monitoring Reports

Bangladesh Bangladesh Annual Country Report 2024 Bhutan Annual Report on Bhutan’s Smooth Transition Strategy (13th Five Year Plan) for Sustainable Graduation Cambodia Lao People's Democratic Republic Nepal Saõ Tomé and Príncipe Evaluation Report of the Graduation Process of São Tomé and Príncipe from the List of LDCs Senegal Rapport sur la Preparation de la Strategie de Sortie du Senegal de la Categorie des PMA Solomon Islands
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CDP Issue Brief No 1: Challenges to global trade growth in 2025

In the first number of the new CDP Issue Brief Series, Carlos Lopes looks at the challenges confronting global trade in 2025. The current trade landscape presents an increasingly complex and uncertain picture. A succession of shocks over the past 15 years has profoundly altered global trade dynamics, exposing vulnerabilities in supply chains, shifted policy priorities, and fueling geopolitical frictions. Addressing these challenges requires coordinated policy responses and a renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation to ensure inclusive economic growth.
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