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Talking Points:

• The World Bank released their 2017 global growth forecasts

• 2016 economic output grew 2.3%, the slowest since the global financial crisis

• This year is expected to accelerate to a 2.7% pace, which would be fastest since 2015

Shortly after the turn of the new year, the World Bank released their 2017 global growth forecasts. While the forthcoming year is expected to see a pick up, the assessment for 2016 reveals a disappointing outcome. According to the institution, global output was estimated to have increased by only 2.3 percent. This marks the slowest pace of expansion since the global financial crisis. However, 2017 is set to be a more positive year.

The World Bank said that 2017 global growth is expected to accelerate back to a 2.7 percent rate of growth. That is comparable to the pace recorded in 2015. Looking at the individual major countries, there are mixed views. US output is forecasted to rise to a 2.2 percent clip from 1.6 percent in 2016. These estimates do not incorporate the effect of policy proposals by the incoming US presidential administration however. US fiscal policies proposed by President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail could provide a bigger activity boost.

In aggregate, the World Bank said that the underperformance of the global economy in 2016 may give way to a moderate recovery in 2017. Fiscal stimulus in the major economies may provide strength to global growth. Substantial numbers of commodity-importing economies such as East Asia, the Pacific and South Asia are projected to continue experiencing solid growth. Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia are also expected to see accelerated growth.

Recent World Bank report titled 'Global Economic Prospects', predicted gross domestic product growth for Iran at 5.2 percent in 2017. The report put Iran's GDP growth at 4.6 percent in 2016, while forecasting 4.8 percent and 4.5 percent growth in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

The World Bank expects Malaysia's economy to grow by 4.3 percent in 2017 and further expand by 4.5 percent next year as an adjustment to lower energy prices eases and commodity prices stabilise.

Thailand’s economy is predicted to grow 3.2 percent. Philippine’s economy is also predicted to grow 6.9 percent in 2017. While Vietnam’s economy is predicted to grow at a slow rate to 6 percent in 2016.

Reference: DailyFX, Reuters, Jagranjosh, Yahoo, Tempo