World Growth Eased Slightly in 2026Q2 as Europe Rebounded While Asia Slowed    

Quarterly Gross Domestic Product, World and Country Aggregates, 2026Q2

Contributors: Abdulrahman Gweder and Richard Wild 

World real GDP growth eased to 0.7 percent in 2026Q2 from 0.8 percent in 2026Q1 (−0.1 percentage points). Over the last six quarters, World growth averaged 0.8 percent.

Regional growth diverged in 2026Q2, with Europe rebounding while Asia slowed and the Americas were unchanged. Europe grew by 0.6 percent in 2026Q2 up from 0.0 percent in 2026Q1, while Asia slowed to 0.9 percent from 1.3 percent. The Americas held at 0.5 percent in both 2026Q1 and 2026Q2, while Africa increased to 1.6 percent from 1.3 percent and Oceania edged up to 0.5 percent from 0.4 percent. In contribution terms, Asia remained the larger contributor (0.4 percentage points of World growth in 2026Q2) while Europe, the Americas and Africa each accounted for 0.1 percentage points.

Advanced Economies (AEs) strengthened modestly as Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) eased. AEs growth increased to 0.5 percent in 2026Q2 from 0.4 percent in 2026Q1, while EMDEs slowed to 0.9 percent from 1.1 percent. Consistent with this, AEs’ contribution to World growth rose to 0.2 percentage points in 2026Q2 from 0.1 percentage points in 2026Q1, while EMDEs’ contribution declined to 0.5 percentage points from 0.7 percentage points in 2026Q1.

World growth averaged 0.8 percent across 2026Q1 (0.8 percent) and 2026Q2 (0.7 percent). Global growth would need to average 0.6 percent per quarter during the second half of the year to match the WEO annual growth forecast of 3.0 percent.

Notes: Growth rates are quarter-to-quarter, seasonally adjusted volume (real) estimates. Contributions are in percentage points. Latest observation period is 2026-Q2. Source: IMF staff calculations.

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