World Economic Outlook, April 2025: A Critical Juncture amid Policy Shifts

The latest World Economic Outlook reports a slowdown in global growth as downside risks intensify. While policy shifts unfold and uncertainties reach new highs, policies need to be calibrated to rebalance growth-inflation trade-offs, rebuild buffers, and reinvigorate medium-term growth, thereby reducing both internal and external imbalances. Policies that promote healthy aging, bridge gender disparities, and enhance the alignment of migrants’ skills with local labor market demands can play a crucial role in countering slow economic growth and fiscal pressures, especially when coupled with infrastructure investment.The movement of migrants and refugees has become a fixture of public debate. Chapter 3 examines how changes in the stringency of migrant and refugee policies can alter the journeys and legal pathways people choose to take within and between economies. For example, stricter policies can deflect flows of people to new destinations. Those economies can experience short-term challenges from strains on local services but ultimately benefit in the longer term. Costs are likely to be more severe where challenges to integrate newcomers are larger—notably in emerging market and developing economies—and their skills are not well matched with local labor market needs. Benefits can materialize sooner by boosting infrastructure investment and promoting private sector development. International cooperation can also help by more evenly distributing short-term costs across economies.