21st century economic growth to be slower than thought

NEW YORK: Global future economic growth will be slower than predicted, with developing nations taking longer to close the wealth gap and approach the income of wealthier nations, a new study has predicted.

Governments need to start planning for slower-growth scenarios, which may involve wealthier nations providing lower-income countries with financing for climate change adaptations, according to the study published today in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

“We're at a point where we maybe need to significantly increase financing for (climate) adaptation in developing countries, and we're also at a point where we might be overestimating our future ability to provide that financing under the current fiscal paradigm,” said Matt Burgess, assistant professor of environmental studies at University of Colorado Boulder who led the study.

Burgess and his colleagues used two economic models to project how much the global economy will grow over the next century and how quickly developing countries will approach the income levels of wealthier nations. Both models found the global economy will continue to grow, but that growth will be slower than most economists expected and there will be a larger income gap between wealthier and poorer nations.