The World Bank, on Wednesday forecast that the global economy may grow by 2.5% this year, on the back of a gradual recovery in investment and trade from last year’s significant weakness.

The bank however warned in its January 2020 Global Economic Prospects of persisting downward risks.

Growth among advanced economies as a group, according to the World Bank, is expected to slip to 1.4% in 2020, partly due to continued softness in manufacturing, while growth in emerging market and developing economies could accelerate to 4.1%.

The rebound, it stressed, is not broad-based, but “assumes the improved performance of a small group of large economies, some of which are emerging from a period of substantial weakness.”

About a third of the emerging market and developing economies, it continued, are projected to decelerate this year due to weaker-than-expected exports and investment.

Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, World Bank Group Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions, urged policymakers to “seize the opportunity to undertake structural reforms that boost broad-based growth, which is essential to poverty reduction.”

This, he explained further, is because growth in emerging and developing economies will likely remain slow, hence the need for steps that will “improve the business climate, the rule of law, debt management, and productivity can help achieve sustained growth.”