That’s according to the World Bank, which has warned that all countries face the prospect of a sustained economic downturn the longer the Ukraine war continues. The bank downgraded its 2022 global economic growth outlook to 2.9% – down from January’s forecast of 4.1% when a bounce out of COVID was the main game. These days, President David Malpass says “the war in Ukraine, lockdowns in China, supply-chain disruptions and the risk of stagflation” are the big issues. Stagflation – the combination of high inflation/unemployment and low growth – hasn’t really been a thing since the 1970s, so yikes… Meanwhile, Australian Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy says the new Albanese Government needs to curb spending on some election promises and tighten taxes on companies/the wealthy to get government debt under control (paywall). He says inflation is on track to rise “potentially well above 6%” this year.