The year 2025 was not an ordinary year in global economic history. It marked a critical moment that showed how deep the crisis of the global economic system has become. Behind numbers were wars and geopolitical conflicts, declining trust, and a clear weakening of the ability of international institutions to protect people.
اضافة اعلان
According to estimates by international financial institutions, global economic growth in 2025 reached about 3 percent, a level close to that seen during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. While this does not mean a full global recession, it shows that most countries in the Global South are unable to create enough jobs to reduce unemployment and poverty.
This weak performance came alongside increasing US restrictions on global trade, including higher tariffs and stricter technology controls, especially toward China. The China–US conflict is no longer only about trade; it has become a broader struggle over value chains, technology, and geo-economic dominance.
According to World Trade Organization estimates, global merchandise trade grew by only about 2 percent in 2025, less than half its historical average. This environment reduced the ability of Global South countries to use trade as a development tool and increased the cost of imports and production.
At the same time, the world has seen an unprecedented worsening of the global debt crisis. More than 55 percent of low-income countries are now in real debt distress, and debt service payments in developing countries have exceeded 1.4 trillion US dollars per year. Total global debt has reached levels equal to around 330 percent of global GDP. In many Global South countries, debt service consumes about 25 percent of public revenues, more than what is spent on health and education combined.
This was accompanied by the collapse of negotiations on a UN tax agreement after the United States withdrew from the talks. This agreement was supposed to be a historic step toward a fairer international tax system that would reduce tax evasion and the illegal flow of profits from the South to the North. Its failure sent a clear message: the interests of multinational corporations still come before the rights of states and peoples.
The outcomes of the Financing for Development Conference in Seville showed a large gap between promises and real commitment. Calls to reform the international financial system were repeated, but without binding mechanisms or clear timelines. At the Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha, goals to reduce poverty and inequality were reaffirmed, but without sufficient resources or real changes to austerity policies imposed on developing countries. Similarly, the climate conference in Brazil confirmed once again that climate finance remains far below actual needs, and that the cost of the green transition is unfairly placed on countries that did not historically cause the climate crisis.
Global poverty also remained at shocking levels. Around 700 million people are still living in extreme poverty, while social inequality continues to grow. International reports show that a small share of the world’s population keeps accumulating enormous wealth, while the incomes of the majority are weakened by inflation and low wages. Inequality has become a core feature of the global economic system.
In this unstable context, declining trust in traditional financial tools became clear. This was reflected in a strong move toward safe assets, with gold prices rising by nearly 70 percent during 2025.
This is how 2025 ends, a very difficult global economic year. It confirmed that crises are not neutral, and that their costs fall unfairly on people in general, and especially on the peoples of the Global South. As 2026 begins, available indicators suggest that conditions are unlikely to improve.
