Every year, global think tanks and public affairs analysts make a series of predictions about economic growth based on owned and publicly available data. It is also not new that they publish the performance of economies around the world in the middle of each year. They have never stopped not releasing performance and forecasts as the year comes to a close.

In all of these situations, they use local, regional, and global media organizations to communicate with the public, particularly political and business leaders, in order for them to see bigger pictures in how the economy is managed and what the consequences would be if identified problems were not addressed holistically.

Opinion leaders in their respective settings disseminate the good and bad performances through the media, without leaving future predictions, to the people at the bottom of the socioeconomic and political pyramid. At the end, when negative economic performance and potential poor future economic performance are disseminated, everyone is in a panic mode.

The year 2022 will end in a few hours and people all over the world have developed a diverse and significant interest in inflation and recession (see Exhibit 1), which have been cited by many global thinkers as key issues the world will face in 2023. This viewpoint is based on the fact that the world struggled in 2022 to solve problems caused by social unrests and political conflicts in some parts of the world. They will also pose significant threats to the global economy in 2023, as central banks struggled to address inflation rates despite various and numerous mitigation strategies developed throughout the year.

Hence, the need for people around the world for asking Google (through Internet search); What will the economy look like in 2023? Will 2023 be a year of recession? Why there will be recession in 2023? What will happen to the US economy in 2023? Will the job market get better in 2023? Where will interest rates be in 2023?

Thousands of answers from leading thinkers around the world are equally available as they ask these questions and others, as our analysts stated earlier. In this regard, a number of publications that relate to the questions have been made by Ipsos, Bloomberg, Harvard Business Review, the International Monetary Fund, regional development banks, central banks, and individuals. According to the IMF, “While price growth is expected to ease in 2023, economic growth is certain to slow sharply alongside rising interest rates, too. The global economy will grow just 2.7 percent in 2023, down from 3.2 percent in 2022.”

While earlier predictions or forecasts appeared to have a significant impact on developing nations, our analyst notes that the effects of the current estimates may be felt equally around the world. Due to ongoing political conflicts in some regions of Europe, South East Asia, and Africa. For some nations, the Russia-Ukraine war has already resulted in food insufficiency and energy inequality. Additionally, it has changed how developing nations like China, Iran, and Algeria engage in international politics with the rest of the world and Russia. Developing nations, such as African countries, are already in severe debt distress.

Exhibit 1: Global interest in key issues of 2022 economy

In all of these, our analyst observes that the world desperately needs global thinkers who understand how to separate issues from interests and interests from actors in order to find common grounds for countries to thrive without harbouring long-term grudges. The world is in shambles, as meeting the goals and targets of Agenda 2030 requires 7 years.  If the current level of hostilities continues in 2023, Agenda 2030 will suffer greatly.

The world requires thinkers who will genuinely promote understanding and appreciation of today’s social, economic, and political differences. The thinkers who will process available information in large chunks and present larger pictures for each nation to see how they can coexist in our evolving multicentric world.