OECD: AI Investment Boosts Global Economy Performance This Year, Outlook Under Pressure Before 2027

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated on Wednesday that AI-driven investment has helped the global economy perform slightly better than expected this year, but increasingly entrenched energy shocks are putting pressure on the economic outlook for 2027. Following last year’s 3.4% growth, the OECD’s medium-term economic outlook report noted that global economic growth is expected to slow to 2.9% by 2026, but this is slightly better than the 2.8% forecast in June. Looking ahead to 2027, the OECD expects that commodity price shocks triggered by conflicts in the Middle East are likely to weigh on economic momentum, forecasting global economic growth to rise only to 3.0%, below the 3.1% forecast in June. The OECD stated that this year’s robust AI infrastructure spending, from data centres to semiconductors, has become a key pillar supporting economic resilience, fuelling the growth of the US economy and boosting technology product exports from Japan and South Korea. However, the OECD warned that global prospects are particularly affected by energy market volatility, extreme weather brought about by a severe El Niño, surging government bond yields, and disappointing returns on AI investments. Should these risks materialise, they could reduce the global economic growth rate by 0.7 percentage points and increase the global inflation rate by 1.1 percentage points next year.