Developed economies expected to drive global growth

Developed economies appear set to gain momentum and drive global growth for the rest of this year, according to a World Bank report on Tuesday.

In its Global Economics Prospects report for June, the World Bank said that because of a bumpy start to the year, the growth projection for the global economy for 2014 as a whole has been marked down from 3.2 percent in January to 2.8 percent. Nevertheless, growth is expected to pick up speed as the year progresses, with the bulk of the acceleration coming from developed economies.

Similarly, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reported on Tuesday that its latest leading economic indicators suggest that member economies as a whole are likely to maintain growth momentum. However, it noted that “the growth momentum is weakening in most major emerging economies”, with the indicators showing weaker than usual growth in China, Russia and Brazil.

The UK economy is among those which appear to be showing strong growth momentum. A report on Tuesday showed that its industrial production rose 0.4 percent in April. That pushed the annual increase up to 3.0 percent, the biggest since January 2011.

Earlier, though, China's supposedly slowing economy appears not to have affected inflation yet. Instead, the inflation rate accelerated to 2.5 percent in May from 1.8 percent in April.