Global economy to worsen on rising geopolitical worries; wealth disparity key concern: Survey

Rising geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions are the most urgent risks the world faces in 2019, while worsening international relations are hindering a collective will to tackle these concerns, a new study said Wednesday.

The annual 'Global Risks Report' by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) also flagged massive incidents of data fraud and large-scale cyber attacks among the biggest risks in terms of likelihood, while it also listed increasing polarisation of societies and growing wealth disparity among key concerns.

The report, based on a survey of nearly 1,000 experts and decision-makers from across the world, said that nine out of ten respondents expect the economy to worsen due to rising geopolitical tensions.

The list of biggest risks by likelihood, is topped by extreme weather events such as floods and storms, followed by failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation; major natural disasters like earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption and geomagnetic storms; massive ..