According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, global economic growth in 2026 is likely to be weaker at 2.3% than was expected at the start of the year (2.7%). The predicted year-on-year slowdown in GDP growth is being driven by developments in the eurozone, where growth is set to decline from 1.5% to 0.4%. Growth in Germany is likely to counter this general European trend, however, with a slight increase from 0.3% to 0.6%, supported by fiscal easing via off-budget funds for infrastructure and defense. China’s growth is set to weaken from 4.9% to 4.5%, while the vast scale of AI-related investment in the United States is likely to mean only a marginal slowdown in GDP growth from 2.1% to 2.0%, despite the relatively soft global economy.