The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
STORYLINE
UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) today released its “Trade and Development Report 2024: Rethinking Development in the Age of Discontent”.
At a moment of low growth, high debt, weak investment and trade, and economic volatility, UNCTAD calls for a new approach to development thinking
The report highlights that despite opportunities for developing countries due to growth in South-South trade and demand created by minerals driving the green transition, developing countries face mounting challenges in navigating a sluggish global economy.
Multilateral action and revised international financial architecture are essential for addressing these challenges and supporting sustainable, inclusive growth.
UNCTAD's report underscores the emergence of a "low normal" in global economic growth, with rates projected to remain at just 2.7% for 2024 and 2025, down from an annual average of 3.0% between 2001 and 2019. This is a stark contrast to the 4.4% average growth seen in the years leading up to the global financial crisis.
For developing economies, this slowdown is more acute. While they grew at an impressive 6.6% during 2003-2013, their average growth has since fallen to just 4.1% between 2014 and 2024. Excluding China, the picture is even bleaker: growth in the Global South has averaged only 2.8% over the last decade.
At the same time, developing countries have seen their debt burdens swell by 70% between 2010 and 2023, putting many at risk of austerity measures that could undermine progress toward inclusive development.
Production date: 29 October 2024
Creator: UNCTAD
Subject topical: ECONOMICS
Corporate name: UN TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT – UNCTAD
TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2024 – UNCTAD calls for a "rethink" of development strategies
UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched today the 2024 Trade and Development Report calls for a fundamental rethink of development strategies amid a global slowdown and rising social discontent.
DESCRIPTION
STORY: UNCTAD / UN TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT
TRT: 02 :50
SOURCE: UNCTAD
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
WEBSITE: https://unctad.org/tdr2024
DATELINE: 29 OCTOBER 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
1. Wide shot, exterior, Palais de Nations
2. Med shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, UN Trade and Development Secretary-General : « We are in a global economy where, although we celebrate the possibility of a soft landing, what we are saying is that we are landing on the wrong runway. We are landing in a framework of slow growth, high debt, weak investment, and the risk of fragmented trade, which is the basis for the widespread discontent we see affecting both developed and developing nations. »
4. Wide shot, speaker on screen, journalist, photographer
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, UN Trade and Development Secretary-General : « The report we share with you today calls for thinking about development policies with much more focus on the interlinkages between the global economy, global trade, and geopolitics. We call for reform of the international financial architecture through the revival of financial investment and trade dynamism for developing countries »
6. Wide shot, press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, UN Trade and Development Secretary-General: « Global growth is at a new low normal with developing nations facing the hardest and harshest impacts. The global economy is projected to grow at just 2.7% for 2024 and 2025. That is significantly lower from the rate that we had in the era pre-pandemic. »
8. Med shot, photographer
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, UN Trade and Development Secretary-General: « Debt in developing countries has surged by over 70% from 2010 to 2023.”
10. Med shot, control room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rebeca Grynspan, UN Trade and Development Secretary-General: « Rising debt has left many developing nations with very limited fiscal space, making structural reforms to boost productivity and resilience more difficult for their weakening their growth prospects. As we have said before, countries face impossible choices between servicing the debt and investment in development and economic transformation.”
12. Various shots, speaker, photographer, journalist
Speakers:
- Rebeca Grynspan, UN Trade and Development Secretary General
- Anastasia Nesvetailova, UNCTAD, Head, Macroeconomic and Development Policies Branch, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies
Similar Stories
2
1
1
Press Conferences , Edited News | HRC
Senior human rights investigators reporting to the Human Rights Council alleged on Thursday that sexual and gender-based violence by Israeli security forces against Palestinian men, women and children have been increasingly used “as a method of war” following the 7 October 2023 attacks that sparked the Gaza war.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR
OHCHR Special Procedures - The situation in occupied Palestinian territory
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF
Bangladesh: Humanitarians describe ‘extreme desperation’ as aid cuts deepen Rohingya children’s suffering
In Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar refugee settlements, child malnutrition has surged and cuts in aid funding risk creating a humanitarian “catastrophe”, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR , UNICEF , WHO
Michele Zaccheo, Chief of the TV, Radio and Webcast Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the representatives and spokespersons of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the World Health Organization.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday gave an update on the situation in Syria’s coastal region as reports continue to emerge of the distressing scale of violence there since 6 March.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNRWA
Update on the work of UNRWA across its areas of operation: Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
The aid response in Burundi to the crisis in neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “is literally buckling”, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, warned on Friday, as it relayed dramatic testimonies from people forced to flee the unchecked advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNHCR , UN WOMEN , ILO , WMO
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the representatives and spokespersons of the United Nations Refugee Agency, UN Women, the International Labour Organization and the World Meteorological Organization.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC , OHCHR
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing speaks on the subject: "Who benefits from a manufactured migration crisis and what has that to do with the housing crisis?"
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNHCR , WHO , WFP
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives from the World Health Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Close to 80,000 have fled DR Congo amid fighting, sexual violence: UNHCR
In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), insecurity and horrific sexual violence have pushed tens of thousands to flee across borders with no sign of the exodus stopping, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IPU
Launch of new report on Women in Parliament