World Economic Situation
andProspects 2018
asdf
United Nations
New York, 2018
Te report is a joint product of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Af-
fairs (UN/DESA), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
and the fve United Nations regional commissions (Economic Commission for Africa (ECA),
Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacifc (ESCAP)
and Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)). Te United Nations
World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) also contributed to the report.
For further information, visit https://un/development/desa/dpad/ or contact:
DESA
Mr. Liu ZhenMin,
Under-Secretary-General
Department of Economic and Social Afairs
Room S-2922
United Nations
New York, NY 10017
USA
( +1-212-9635958
UNCTAD
Dr. Mukhisa kituyi,
Secretary-General
United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development
Room E-9042
Palais de Nations
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
( +41-22-9175806
ECA
Ms. Vera songwe,
Executive Secretary
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
Menelik II Avenue
P.O. Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
( +251-11-5511231
ECE
Ms. oLga aLgayeroVa,
Executive Secretary
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
( +41-22-9174444
ECLAC
Ms. aLicia Bárcena,
Executive Secretary
Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean
Av. Dag Hammarskjld 3477
Vitacura
Santiago, Chile
Chile
( +56-2-22102000
ESCAP
Dr. shaMshaD akhtar,
Executive Secretary
Economic and Social Commission for Asia
and the Pacifc
United Nations Building
Rajadamnern Nok Avenue
Bangkok 10200
Thailand
( +66-2-2881234
ESCWA
Mr. MohaMeD aLi aLhakiM,
Executive Secretary
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
P.O. Box 11-8575
Riad el-Solh Square, Beirut
Lebanon
( +961-1-981301
@escwa.un/main/contact.asp
ISBN: 978-92-1-109177-9
eISBN: 978-92-1-362882-9
United Nations publication
Sales No. E.18.II.C.2
Copyright @ United Nations, 2018
All rights reserved
Acknowledgements
Te
World Economic Situation and Prospects
2018
is a joint product of the United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Afairs (UN/DESA), the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the fve United Nations regional commissions
(Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Eco-
nomic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacifc (ESCAP) and Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia (ESCWA)).
Te United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and staf from the
United Nations Ofce of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries,
Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS)
and the International Labour Organization (ILO) also contributed to the report. Te report
has benefted from inputs received from the national centres of Project LINK and from the
deliberations in the Project LINK meeting held in Geneva on 3-5 October 2017. Te fore-
casts presented in the report draw on the World Economic Forecasting Model (WEFM)
of UN/DESA.
Under the general guidance of Liu Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General for Economic
and Social Afairs, and the management of Pingfan Hong, Director of Development Policy
and Analysis Division (DPAD), this publication was coordinated by Dawn Holland, Chief
of Global Economic Monitoring Unit of DPAD.
Te contributions of Grigor Agabekian, Helena Afonso, Peter Chowla, Ian Cox,
Andrea Grozdanic, Arend Janssen, Shanlin Jin (intern), Leah C. Kennedy, Matthias Kempf,
Poh Lynn Ng, Ingo Pitterle, Micha Podolski, Gabe Scelta, Krishnan Sharma, Shari Spiegel,
Nancy Settecasi, Anya Tomas, Alexander Trepelkov, Tet Wynn, Sebastian Vergara and
Yasuhisa Yamamoto from UN/DESA; Bruno Antunes, Stefan Csordas, Taisuke Ito, Mina
Mashayekhi, Nicolas Maystre, Janvier D. Nkurunziza, Bonapas Onguglo and Julia Seier-
mann from UNCTAD; Yesuf Mohammednur Awel, Hopestone Chavula, Adam Elhiraika,
Khaled Hussein, Allan Mukungu, Sidzanbnoma Nadia Denise Ouedraogo from ECA; José
Palacín from ECE; Claudia De Camino, Michael Hanni, Esteban Pérez-Caldentey, Ramón
Pineda, Daniel Titelman, Cecilia Vera, Jurgen Weller from ECLAC; Hamza Ali Malik,
Jose Antonio Pedrosa Garcia, Sara Holttinen, Jeong-Dae Lee, Kiatkanid Pongpanich and
Vatcharin Sirimaneetham from ESCAP; Seung-Jin Baek, Moctar Mohamed El Hacene,
Mohamed Hedi Bchir and Ahram Han from ESCWA; Michel Julian, John Kester and
Javier Ruescas from UNWTO; Miniva Chibuye from UN-OHRLLS; Sheena Yoon, Stefan
Kühn and Steven Tobin from ILO are duly acknowledged.
Te report was edited by Carla Drysdale.
ivWorld Economic Situation and Prospects 2018
Explanatory notes
The following symbols have been used in the tables throughout the report:
..
–
-
Two dots indicate that data are not available
or are not separately reported.
A dash indicates that the amount is nil or negligible.
A hyphen indicates that the item is not applicable.
A minus sign indicates defcit or decrease, except as
indicated.
.
/
–
A full stop is used to indicate decimals.
A slash between years indicates a crop year or fnancial year,
for example, 2017/18.
Use of a hyphen between years, for example, 2017–2018,
signifes the full period involved, including the beginning
and end years.
Reference to “dollars” ($) indicates United States dollars, unless otherwise stated.
Reference to “billions” indicates one thousand million.
Reference to “tons” indicates metric tons, unless otherwise stated.
Annual rates of growth or change, unless otherwise stated,
refer to annual compound rates.
Details and percentages in tables do not necessarily add to totals,
because of rounding.
Project LINK is an international collaborative research
group for econometric modelling, coordinated jointly
by the Development Policy andAnalysis Division of
UN/DESA and the University of Toronto.
For country classifcations, see Statistical annex.
Data presented in this publication incorporate
information available as at 11 November 2017.
The following abbreviations have been used:
AAAA
BIS
BoJ
bpd
CIS
CO2
ECA
ECB
ECE
ECLAC
ESCAP
ESCWA
EU
FDI
Fed
G20
GCC
GDP
GHG
GNI
GVCs
ICAO
ICT
Addis Ababa Action Agenda
Bank for International Settlements
Bank of Japan
barrels per day
Commonwealth of Independent States
carbon dioxide
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
European Central Bank
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
United Nations Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for
Asia and the Pacifc
United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia
European Union
foreign direct investment
United States Federal Reserve
Group of Twenty
The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf
gross domestic product
greenhouse gas
gross national income
global value chains
International Civil Aviation Organization
information and communications technology
IEA
IIF
ILO
IMF
IMO
LDCs
MDBs
NAFTA
ODA
OECD
OPEC
PPP
SDGs
SIDS
TFP
UN/DESA
UNCTAD
UNEP
UNWTO
VAT
WESP
WGP
WTO
International Energy Agency
Institute of International Finance
International Labour Organization
International Monetary Fund
Inter