WASHINGTON, January 10. /TASS/. The new key study by the World Bank is overly politicized, causes criticism from experts, and some of its provisions can hardly be considered objective, the representatives of the Russian directorate of the World Bank told TASS. On Tuesday, the World Bank released its January 2023 Global Economic Prospects report.
"Although the current report is much more balanced compared to the June one (after our criticism of previous forecasts, more adequate estimates of the dynamics of Russia's GDP are given, the negative impact of anti-Russian sanctions on the global economy is finally admitted <…>, it still causes criticism. Unfortunately, these reports are not agreed with the World Bank Board of Directors and reflect only the personal point of view of their authors," the Russian directorate noted.
"In particular, we drew attention to the excessive politicization of the report (Russia is mentioned in it more than a hundred times, this is especially in contrast with similar reports of 2003-2004, when the United States was not mentioned even once when analyzing the consequences of the war in Iraq)," the Russian directorate explained.
Besides that, the document "left aside many really important topics: the threat of bankruptcy of entire industries in Europe and the growth of unemployment due to the refusal of Russian energy carriers, demographic problems and their impact on disruptions in trade and production chains in developed countries, interruptions in the supply of fertilizers due to anti-Russian sanctions and others".
In the new report, the forecast for the dynamics of Russia's real GDP in 2022 has been significantly improved - from -8.9% (June estimate) to -3.5%.
Despite numerous references to the Ukrainian conflict in the text, the focus is generally shifting from geopolitics to other issues. There are chapters on the post-pandemic slowdown in investment and the problems of small states. The main issues of the world economy now include inflation, the flight of capital to developed countries, the strengthening of the dollar and the depreciation of the currencies of developing countries, high prices for raw materials and food, and the disruption of trade chains.
According to the World Bank, in the CIS countries there is a real economic boom as a result of the influx of Russian personnel and investments. As a result, growth estimates for 2022 have been significantly improved (in particular, for Armenia - from 3.5% to 10.8%; for Azerbaijan - from 2.7% to 4.2%, for Kazakhstan - from 2% to 3%, for Kyrgyzstan - from -2% to 5.5%, for Tajikistan - from -0.4% to 7%).
The authors of the study conclude that emerging economies are becoming the main sources of global GDP growth. For 2023, growth in this group is forecast to be 3.4% (down 0.8% compared to the previous report), while in developed economies - only 0.5%. The highest GDP growth rates in 2023 are expected in India (6.6%), Bangladesh (5.2%), Indonesia (4.8%), China (4.3%), Saudi Arabia (3.7%), Thailand (3.6%).
Growth in developed economies slowed from 5.2% in 2021 to 2.5% in 2022 due to record inflation and decline in demand. In Europe, after replacing significant volumes of Russian natural gas imports with liquefied natural gas from the United States and other countries, gas and electricity prices peaked, which led to a reduction in production.
The WB report on the prospects for the development of the world economy is published twice a year - in January and June.