India is fastest-growing economy in 2018; Venezuela, North Korea slowest

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The year was 2008 when the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression hit and upended the global economy, reverberating panic through industries left, right and center. While the global economy has since recovered from the financial crisis then, it continues to wax and wane at a modest steady pace.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) reports that the trend will likely carry on in 2018, with the world’s gross domestic product bound to increase by 2.7 percent, just faintly less from last year’s 2.9 percent.

As reported by EIU, second-biggest economy behemoth China remains the major contributor, whose growth is projected to swell by 5.8 percent this 2018, a third of the total global expansion. India, with a projected GDP increase of 7.8 percent, trumps as the world’s fastest-growing economy.

Likely to be slowest is Venezuela with an 11.9 percent loss, and although still reeling from hyperinflation, has yet to confront a sovereign-debt default in the offing. North Korea, meanwhile, is expected to pay for the cost of its policies, with the international sanctions bound to tighten parallel to the ever-increasing demand for nuclear weapons.

Puerto Rico trails just behind, projected to dwindle by 8 percent, brought about by the repercussions of a crippling hurricane. Cody Cepeda/JB

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