Citing trade wars, the World Bank sharply downgrades forecast for global economic growth to 2.3%

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's trade wars are expected to slash economic growth this year in the United States and around the world, the World Bank forecast Tuesday. Citing "a substantial rise in trade barriers'' but without mentioning Trump by name, the 189-country lender predicted that the U.S. economy - the world's largest - would grow half as fast (1.4%) this year as it did in 2024 (2.8%). That marked a downgrade from the 2.3% U.S. growth it had forecast back for 2025 back in January. The bank also lopped 0.4 percentage points off its forecast for global growth…