UN expects 2017 global growth to rise to 2.7%

The United Nations expects global economic growth to rise to 2.7 per cent this year and 2.9 per cent in 2018, up from 2.2 per cent in 2016 and said Brexit and US.

President-elect Donald Trump's tax policies could have adverse effects.

In its annual economic forecast published on Tuesday, the UN said there was uncertainty created by Britain's vote to leave the European Union and predicted the British economy would slow to 1.1 per cent in 2017 and 1.3 per cent in 2018 from an estimated 2.0 per cent in 2016.

If Trump's plans for tax reforms protected US producers then this could pose a "huge threat to the multilateral system and the WTO," said Alfredo Calcagno, head of macroeconomic and development policies at the UN economic agency UNCTAD.

Cutting corporation taxes might also generate a US budget deficit in the short term, "and that could bring us towards a challenge for the global economy," he told a news conference in Geneva.

The UN report, based on data with a cut-off date of November 11, just after the US presidential election, forecast US growth would rise to 1.9 per cent in 2017 and 2.0 per cent in 2018 from an estimated 1.5 per cent in 2016.

UN forecast for economies

- British economy would slow to 1.1% in 2017 from an estimated 2.0% in 2016

- US growth would rise to 1.9% in 2017 from 1.5% in the previous year

- China's economic growth was seen slowing slightly to 6.5% in 2017 from 6.6% in 2016

- India's growth was expected to rise slightly to 7.7% in 2017, compared to 7.6% in 2016

Reuters