In its latest report, the UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicts the world will slide into a global recession next year as numerous national economies contract in response to surging borrowing costs which will be implemented to combat surging inflation.

The report notes than even though the world economy surpassed $100 trillion for the first time in 2022, the global economy will sputter out in 2023 as, “the battle against inflation is not won yet,” and central banks will continue raising interest rates, the consultancy said in its annual World Economic League Table.

Director and head of forecasting at CEBR, Kay Daniel Neufeld, wrote, “We expect central bankers to stick to their guns in 2023 despite the economic costs. The cost of bringing inflation down to more comfortable levels is a poorer growth outlook for a number of years to come.”

The report came to a more pessimistic conclusion than the International Monetary Fund’s most recent forecast, which predicted in October that in 2023, over a third of the world’s economies would contract.

Basing its forecasts for growth, inflation, and exchange-rates on IMF data and its own in-house model, the CEBR noted that over the last year, “inflation has become the main economic story.” The report went on to note, “even though we are starting to see price growth decelerating in some economies, volatility in global energy markets and entrenched core inflation suggest that it will remain front and center in 2023 as well.”

The report also predicted China would outperform the US, becoming the world’s largest economy by 2036. That was six years later than it had previously predicted, due to the country’s battles with the Covid-19 virus, and escalating tensions over trade with the US, which all have hampered growth.

The study also predicted India’s economy would go on to become the world’s third-largest by 2032, and would reach $10 trillion in size by 2035.