On Thursday, September 19, 2019, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) issued its fall report on global economic growth prospects. The forecast is discouraging, as the China-U.S. trade dispute spills over to other regions and countries. It now expects global economic growth of just 2.9% in 2019, the lowest figure since the Great Recession in 2009. The growth figure for 2018 was 3.6%. A slight rebound is forecast for 2020 with global growth expected to reach 3.0%. Growth prospects for China are very weak, compared to the 2018 growth rate of 6.6%, the rate for 2019 is 6.1% and for 2020 just 5.7%. Problems in Germany will cut its GDP growth rate from 1.5% in 2018 to O.5% in 2019 and 0.6% in 2020.
In addition, the OECD lowered its growth forecast for the U.S. economy to 2.4% in 2019 and 2.0% in 2020. In May, these forecasts were for U.S. growth of 2.8% in 2019 and 2.3% for 2020. The U.S. growth rate in 2018 was 2.9%. The research group also listed turmoil in the Middle East and confusion over the UK exit from the EU as problems that will inhibit global trade and growth.