World Economy on Track for Slight Pickup as Inflation Is Tamed

Falling interest rates and recovering real wages will help drive a slight pickup in global economic growth this year and next, while recent falls in oil prices could aid the final push to tame inflation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday.

However, the Paris-based research body warned that “comparatively benign” projections may not come to pass, with uncertainties remaining about how large an impact high interest rates will have on demand in the months ahead, while an escalation of the conflicts in the Middle East could push oil prices sharply higher.

In its quarterly report on the economic outlook, the OECD said it now expects global output to increase by 3.2% in 2024 and again in 2025, having grown by 3.1% last year. That was a slight upgrade from the 3.1% growth it forecast in May, and a sizable revision from the 2.7% expansion it expected to see when it published forecasts at the end of 2023.

The U.S. is largely responsible for that better performance, but India and Brazil are also growing more rapidly than expected, as is the U.K. By contrast, Germany and Japan have disappointed, with the former now forecast to hover on the brink of stagnation this year, and the latter to experience a small contraction.

However, despite the improved outlook for growth, and inflation rates that the OECD expects to fall to central-bank targets by the end of next year, consumer confidence has yet to pick up significantly, which would give a further boost to growth.

The OECD said that persistent dissatisfaction with economic performance, which is not limited to the U.S., is likely linked to the fact that food prices remain well above their pre-pandemic levels.

“There is a disconnect between how the economy is perceived and how the economy is doing,” said Alvaro Pereira , the OECD’s chief economist. “For people who go to the supermarket, food prices relative to wages are still higher.”

In the U.S., the gap between food-price and wage inflation between the end of 2019 and the second quarter of this year was roughly four percentage points. But that gap was much wider in large European economies, and above 15 percentage points in Germany. In South Africa, it was above 20 points.

The recent fall in oil prices may help offset some of that dissatisfaction, and boost a global fight to tame inflation that appears to be in its final stages. The OECD estimated that the 10% decline since July would knock half a percentage point off the global rate of inflation, if it were to be sustained. But it is far from certain that it will be.

“If the conflict in the Middle East escalates, this will have an impact on energy prices,” Pereira said.

Should escalation be avoided, the OECD said further falls in oil prices could allow for a faster reduction in central-bank interest rates than it currently expects, and boost growth in countries that don’t produce oil.

With inflation rates set to fall further, the OECD said central banks should lower their key interest rates, but in a manner that is “carefully judged” to ensure price rises continue to slow. It expects the Federal Reserve’s key rate to fall by a further 1.5 percentage points by the end of 2025, while the European Central Bank’s key rate is forecast to fall by 1.25 percentage points.

The Paris-based body said the interest-rate rises that central banks announced in 2022 and 2023 to counter a surge in inflation continue to weigh on growth, although with diminishing force.

But it noted that many households and businesses continue to see the interest rates they pay rise as their debts mature and they enter into new contracts. The OECD estimated that almost a third of rich-country corporate debt is due to mature in 2026, with new debt issued to replace it likely paying a higher rate of interest.

The OECD left its forecast for U.S. growth in 2024 unchanged at 2.6%, and also retained its 4.9% projection for China. Pereira said the package of stimulus measures announced by the Chinese government Tuesday could lead to a “slight” upward revision when the OECD next releases growth forecasts in early December.

A sharp technology sell-off has exposed a new anxiety on global markets: whether the enormous borrowing behind the artificial-intelligence infrastructure boom can generate sufficient returns as interest rates rise and Chinese competition intensifies.

The artificial-intelligence investment boom has powered technology shares, semiconductor manufacturers and data-centre operators to extraordinary heights. Last week, investors were given a reminder that much of this expansion is being built with borrowed money.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.5 per cent over the week ended October 16, its weakest performance since late June. Semiconductor shares suffered an even deeper correction, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index losing about 11.4 per cent.

The selling spread quickly through global markets. Micron Technology fell 14.6 per cent over the week, while South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped approximately 18 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

This was more than a routine bout of profit-taking. Investors were reassessing three interconnected risks: higher interest rates, the rapidly expanding debt burden attached to AI infrastructure and the prospect of stronger competition from Chinese memory-chip manufacturers.

The debt behind the AI build-out

Artificial intelligence requires a physical infrastructure network of enormous scale. Data centres must be built, advanced processors purchased, power supplies secured and cooling systems installed before customers begin generating meaningful revenue from them.

Technology companies are increasingly supplementing their own cash with corporate bonds, syndicated loans, equipment leases, private credit and project-level financing.

JPMorgan describes the emerging funding model as a combination of conventional corporate borrowing and project finance tied to individual data-centre assets. In Australia, the Reserve Bank estimates that syndicated loans accounted for approximately three-quarters of data-centre financing during 2025 and 2026 to date.

The numbers are becoming large enough to affect broader credit markets. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has cited Wall Street estimates suggesting AI-related investment-grade bond issuance could approach US$300 billion in 2026 alone.

That borrowing is not automatically problematic. Debt can be an efficient way to finance long-lived infrastructure when future revenue is sufficiently predictable. The concern is that AI technology, customer demand and computing economics are changing much faster than the repayment schedules attached to the assets.

A data centre financed today may carry debt for years. Investors must therefore make assumptions about future utilisation rates, electricity prices, chip performance, customer concentration and the amount businesses will ultimately pay for AI computing.

When interest rates rise, those assumptions become less forgiving.

Inflation changes the calculation

September’s US inflation data intensified the pressure. Consumer prices increased 3.7 per cent over the year, ahead of market expectations and up from 3.4 per cent in August.

The hotter reading reduced confidence that interest rates would fall quickly and pushed bond yields higher. That matters particularly for companies whose valuations depend on profits expected well into the future, as well as highly leveraged infrastructure operators that may need to refinance.

CoreWeave has emerged as a closely watched test case. The specialist cloud-computing company has accumulated substantial debt and lease obligations to build AI capacity, while relying on a concentrated group of large technology customers.

Its shares fell sharply during the sell-off, while the cost of insuring its debt against default climbed. CoreWeave has argued that its contracted backlog more than covers its obligations and that financial markets do not always understand its business model. Nevertheless, its securities have become a proxy for investor confidence in debt-funded AI infrastructure.

Oracle, another major investor in AI computing capacity, fell 8.8 per cent in Friday trading, while CoreWeave dropped 15.5 per cent.

The question is shifting from how much AI infrastructure can be built to how profitably it can be operated.

China adds another source of pressure

Interest rates were not the only catalyst. Reports of advances by Chinese memory-chip producer ChangXin Memory Technologies raised concerns that lower-cost Chinese products could increase competition across the global semiconductor industry.

Memory chips are essential to AI systems, but the industry is historically cyclical. Periods of tight supply and high pricing can encourage rapid investment, eventually producing oversupply and falling margins.

The prospect of a well-funded Chinese competitor expanding its technological capabilities unsettled investors in Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. It also demonstrated that AI-related demand does not insulate chipmakers from conventional competitive pressures.

That combination—slower rate cuts, more expensive financing and potentially cheaper supply—challenged the assumption that every company exposed to AI would enjoy continually expanding margins.

A reset rather than the end of the boom

The sell-off does not establish that the AI boom is ending. Demand for computing power remains strong, the largest technology companies continue to generate formidable cash flows and many infrastructure projects are backed by long-term customer contracts.

What has changed is the market’s willingness to overlook the price and financing structure of that growth.

The most resilient companies are likely to be those able to fund investment from operating cash flow, secure long-duration customers and demonstrate that new capacity will earn returns comfortably above its financing costs.

More speculative operators may face greater scrutiny, particularly where debt is expensive, customers are concentrated or expected revenue depends on demand that has not yet materialised.

For Australian investors, the lesson extends beyond US technology shares. Local data-centre operators, infrastructure funds, electricity suppliers and property groups are increasingly exposed to the same investment cycle.

Artificial intelligence may remain one of the defining growth themes of the decade. But last week’s correction showed that enthusiasm for the technology does not eliminate financial discipline.

The next stage of the AI boom will be judged not only by computing power, model performance or demand for chips, but by something more traditional: whether the assets being financed can generate enough cash to repay the money borrowed to build them.

Fact box

Nasdaq Composite: Down 4.5 per cent for the week ended October 16, 2026

Philadelphia Semiconductor Index: Down approximately 11.4 per cent

Micron Technology: Down approximately 14.6 per cent

Samsung Electronics: Down approximately 18 per cent

SK Hynix: Down approximately 24 per cent

US September inflation: 3.7 per cent annually

Estimated 2026 AI-related investment-grade issuance: Approximately US$300 billion