2023 will be a challenging year for the world economy to withstand the impact of the continuous tightening of monetary policy by central banks, geopolitical tensions, inflation that remains high and several other factors.
Most recently, the European Zone was reported to have slipped into recession in the first three months of the year after revised official figures showed the bloc's economy contracted.
Data from Eurostat revealed gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.1% in the first quarter of 2023 and the last three months of 2022.
For context, a technical recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Among the main factors to this decline is the increase in the cost of living which has affected consumer spending in the bloc.
Households across the European Zone have been under pressure from rising living costs after Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered a sharp spike in gas prices.
It has further fueled inflation to surge to the highest level since the establishment of the single currency bloc.
However, after raising interest rates 7 times, the European Zone has seen a fairly significant drop in inflation in recent months.
The annual rate was seen to decline from a peak of 10.6% last October to 6.1% in May.
The European Central Bank's (ECB) policy meeting next week will see whether policymakers still want to continue tightening or stop it.
