WTO warns recession

September 27, 2022

Shot of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, speaking at a panel

The WTO is the latest intergovernmental institution to join the chorus of warnings over a coming global recession. Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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A number of coinciding crises are slowing global economic growth and threatening to tip the world into a recession, the World Trade Organization chief warned on Tuesday, making it the latest global institution to issue a dark forecast for the world economy.

Earlier this month, the World Bank issued a study predicting a global recession as early as next year, citing slower economic growth and central banks around the world tightening their monetary policies to reduce inflation. And in July, the International Monetary Fund downgraded its global economic growth forecast, with one of the organization’s officials cautioning that the world may “soon be teetering on the edge of a global recession.”

This week, the WTO became the latest intergovernmental trade organization to make a dire prediction about the world’s chances of avoiding a global recession.