As reported earlier, World Bank published its Global Economic Prospects report on 15 January 2013. The bank publishes the report twice a year.

Director of Development Prospects Group of World Bank Hans Timmer said that the main part of report takes 25 pages and it includes appendixes on commodity markets, financial flow, currency exchange, regional markets.

The report said that last year developing countries recorded among their slowest economic growth rates of the past decade, partly because of the heightened Euro Area uncertainty in May and June of 2012. Since then, financial market conditions have improved dramatically. International capital flows to developing countries, which fell 30 percent in the second quarter of 2012, have recovered and bond spreads have declined to below their long-term average levels of around 282 basis points. Developing-country stock markets are up 12.6 percent since June, while equity markets in high-income countries are up by 10.7 percent. However, the real-side of the economy has responded modestly. Output in developing countries has accelerated, but is being held back by weak investment and industrial activity in advanced economies.

The World Bank estimates global GDP grew 2.3 percent in 2012, compared with last June’s expectation of 2.5 percent. Growth is expected to remain broadly unchanged at 2.4 percent growth in 2013, before gradually strengthening to 3.1 percent in 2014 and 3.3 percent in 2015. Developing-country GDP is estimated to have grown 5.1 percent in 2012, and is projected to expand by 5.5 percent in 2013, strengthening to 5.7 percent and 5.8 percent in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Growth in high-income countries has been downgraded from earlier forecasts, at 1.3 percent for 2012 and 2013, firming to 2.0 percent in 2014 and 2.3 percent by 2015. Growth in the Euro Area is now projected to only return to positive territory in 2014, with GDP expected to contract by 0.1 percent in 2013, before edging up to 0.9 percent in 2014 and 1.4 percent in 2015. Overall, global trade of goods and services, which grew only 3.5 percent in 2012, is expected to accelerate, expanding by 6.0 percent in 2013 and 7.0 percent by 2015.

Speaking about Europe and Central Asia region, Hans Timmer said that the slowest growth rate was recorded in 2012 in the region.

GDP growth in Europe and Central Asia is estimated to have slowed sharply to 3 percent in 2012 from 5.5 percent in 2011 as the region faced significant headwinds, including weak external demand, deleveraging by European banks, summer drought and commodity-price induced inflationary pressures.

Growth slowed most in countries with strong economic linkages to the Euro Area, while it was relatively robust in resource-rich economies that have benefited from high commodity prices. GDP growth in the region is projected to rebound to 3.6 percent in 2013 and 4.3 percent by 2015. Medium-term prospects for the region will critically depend on progress in addressing external (large current account deficits) and domestic (large fiscal deficit, unemployment, and inflation) imbalances, lack of competitiveness, and structural constraints.

Hans Timmer underlined that developing countries should continue structural reforms, which will ensure future economic growth. He said that the report recommended that developing countries need to focus on raising the growth potential of their economies, while strengthening buffers to deal with risks from the Euro Area and fiscal policy in the United States.

"The economic recovery remains fragile and uncertain, clouding the prospect for rapid improvement and a return to more robust economic growth," said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim at launch of the report. "Developing countries have remained remarkably resilient thus far. But we can't wait for a return to growth in the high-income countries, so we have to continue to support developing countries in making investments in infrastructure, in health, in education. This will set the stage for the stronger growth that we know that they can achieve in the future.”

As reported earlier, the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of Uzbekistan will grow by 7.5%, according to the World Bank report.

According to forecast of the World Bank’s specialists, economy of Uzbekistan will grow by 7% in 2014 and 6.8% in 2014. The report said that the GDP of Uzbekistan rose by 8.2% in 2012.

The report noted that the current account balance of Uzbekistan will make up 4.5% to GDP in 2013 and 4% in 2014, as well as 3.8% in 2015. The figure made up 4.5% in 2012, according to the World Bank estimates.

According to official data, Uzbekistan posted 8.2% GDP growth in 2012. The Government of Uzbekistan expects that the GDP of the country will increase by 8% in 2013.