The World Economic Forum (WEF) released a landmark report on Wednesday calling for an entirely new economic blueprint, arguing that the strategies that drove global prosperity over the past three decades have lost their effectiveness.
The report, titled Growth in the New Economy: Towards a Blueprint, draws on two years of dialogue with nearly 200 global leaders and a survey of more than 11,000 executives across 118 countries. It identifies four pressure points reshaping the global economy: accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, intensifying geostrategic competition, mounting public and private debt, and deepening environmental and demographic strains.
Among the report’s firmest conclusions is that high energy costs and political instability are the two most immediate barriers suppressing growth across income levels. In wealthy economies, skill shortages and rigid regulations rank as top concerns, while in lower-income nations, limited access to finance and poor infrastructure dominate.
Looking ahead, the WEF identifies information technology services, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and leisure as the sectors most likely to lead output gains over the next five years. Asia is projected to account for more than half of all global growth through 2030, with middle-income economies collectively contributing nearly two thirds of global gross domestic product (GDP) expansion over that period.
The report also flags long-term demographic divergence as a critical fault line. Ageing populations are expected to slow growth in Eastern Asia and Europe, while younger populations in the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa are positioned to support expansion, provided investment and institutional conditions improve.
On the policy side, the WEF frames several choices as having no downside regardless of context, including strengthening productivity, investing in human capital, maintaining credible institutions, and reinforcing macroeconomic stability. More contested are decisions around fiscal management, with policymakers choosing between debt discipline and forms of financial repression, and around trade, where the tension between domestic self-reliance and deeper global integration remains unresolved.
Attilio Di Battista, Head of Economic Growth and Transformation at the WEF, said the current environment demands bold choices, with productivity, talent and economic fundamentals standing as clear winning strategies regardless of a country’s income level.
The findings were released in Geneva on Wednesday, April 15, 2026.
