The World Bank has revealed that 25% of developing countries are poorer now than in 2019 before COVID-19 hit. Many low-income nations, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, faced negative shocks in the six years ending last year. The bank said global growth has slowed since the pandemic and is too weak to cut extreme poverty or create enough jobs. Growth in emerging and developing economies is expected to drop from 4.2% last year to 4% in 2026. Although the global economy showed some unexpected resilience, mainly due to a strong US performance, growth is predicted to remain modest. The US economy is forecast to grow by 2.1% in 2025 and 2.2% in 2026, higher than previous estimates. Meanwhile, growth in the euro area is sluggish at 0.9% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026. Global growth is set to stay nearly steady, easing slightly from 2.7% in 2025 to 2.6% in 2026 before bouncing back to 2.7% in 2027. Many countries struggling to recover have suffered wars and famines, which worsened the pandemic’s impact. New growth gains can't yet reverse earlier setbacks. World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said, "These trends cannot be explained by misfortune alone. In far too many developing countries, they reflect avoidable policy mistakes." He urged governments to enforce strict budget rules and focus on liberalizing investment and trade, cutting public spending, and investing in technology and education. Gill warned that without strong growth, joblessness will rise, especially for the 1.2 billion young people expected to enter the global job market soon. He added, "The global economy has become less capable of generating growth and more resilient to policy uncertainty. But economic dynamism and resilience cannot diverge for long without fracturing public finance and credit markets. The world economy will grow slower than in the troubled 1990s, carrying record debt levels."