The United Nations warned Wednesday that world growth in the next two years will not be enough to recover jobs lost in the financial crisis and that key countries could be heading for a double-dip recession. The United States, Japan and major European economies are all at risk of a new recession, said a UN report which predicted the world economy will expand by 3.1 percent in 2011 and 3.5 percent in 2012.
The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2011 report said the growth would be "far from sufficient to enable recovering the jobs lost because of the crisis." It said US growth will fall from 2.6 percent this year to 2.2 percent next year and then rebound to 2.8 percent in 2012.
China's growth will fall from 10.1 percent to 8.9 percent in 2011 before hitting the critical 9.0 percent target again in 2012. Japan's output growth will fall from 2.7 percent this year to 1.1 percent in 2011 and then rise to 1.4 percent. India will go from 8.4 percent to 7.1 percent next year and then 7.3 percent in 2012. The 16-nation eurozone will fall from a predicted 1.6 percent this year to 1.3 percent in 2011 and then 1.9 percent, the report said. Britain's economy will grow 1.8 percent in 2010, 2.1 percent next year and then 2.6 percent in 2012. "The recovery of the world economy has started to lose momentum since the middle of 2010, and all indicators point at weaker global economic growth," said the report.