UNITED NATIONS: Third World Growth May Top Five Percent in 1994

UNITED NATIONS, Dic 30 (IPS) - The United Nations said Friday that Third World economic growth may exceed five percent in 1994 and rise to nearly six percent in 1995.

In its year-end update of the world economy, the United Nations also predicted that global economic growth may reach only 2.5 percent in 1994 and about three percent in 1995.

If the Third World forecast is realized, it will mark four consecutive years of aggregate growth of about five percent or more, a figure considerably above the average growth rate in the 1980s.

In a 21-page report released here, the United Nations also said that growth among developing nations remains "highly uneven".

The relatively high growth for developing nations has been primarily attributed to the growing economic successes in the Asian region.

Per capita output is expected to rise by 10 percent in China in 1994, and by five percent in South and East Asia.

In sharp contrast, however, there was only an increase of a little over one percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and a decline of one percent or more in Africa and West Asia.

The high growth rate in Asia is widely shared among most of the countries in the region reflected in strong recovery in South Korea and the Philippines.

There was also "continued rapid growth" in the second generation of newly industrialised economies (NIEs)-- specifically Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand-- and in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In its projections for next year, the United Nations says that the overall economic outlook for 1995 "remains broadly encouraging".

In most developed market economies, investment is increasing, business and consumer confidence is on the rise and inflation remains low.

One widespread phenomenon, however, is the growing fear that inflation will reappear in the near future, although price rises have thus far remained weak.

The report also points out that the pace of growth in the United States may be starting to slow, while the recoveries in Australia, Canada and Britain are becoming increasingly broad- based.

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