Donald Trump’s tariffs will hurt global growth, OECD warns

Global economic growth is set to be slower this year largely because of Donald Trump’s US tariffs, according to a leading international policy group.

Worldwide growth is now expected to slow to a “modest” 2.9%, down from a previous forecast of 3.1%, said the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

It blamed a “significant” rise in trade barriers for the downgrade and warned that “weakened economic prospects will be felt around the world, with almost no exception”.

Since the US president returned to the White House, a long list of countries have been targeted by tariffs, but Trump’s unpredictable approach to implementing the measures has created widespread uncertainty.

“We are forecasting basically a downgrade for almost everybody,” Alvaro Pereira, the OECD’s chief economist told the BBC.

“We’ll have a lot less growth and job creation than we had forecasted in the past.”

The group also slashed the outlook for the US economy this year from 2.2% to 1.6% and predicted growth would slow again in 2026.

It warned that the US was at risk from rising inflation, something that Trump repeatedly promised would fall during his presidential campaign.

Prior to the release of the OECD report on Tuesday, Trump wrote on social media: “Because of Tariffs, our Economy is BOOMING!”

However, the most recent official data showed the US economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.2% in the first three months of this year, the first contraction since 2022.