WASHINGTON - (Xinhua) -- World Bank President David Malpass said Thursday that the global economy is "perilously close" to recession, as inflation continues to soar, interest rates rise and a growing debt burden hits the developing world.

"We have lowered our growth forecast for 2023 from 3 percent to 1.9 percent for global growth, and this is an indication that we are dangerously close to recording a global recession," Malpass said in a press conference during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

He pointed out that "all the problems that people know about, the problem of inflation, the increase in interest rates, and stopping the flow of capital to the developing world dealt a heavy blow to the poor," highlighting the accumulation of debts of developing countries.

"This is a global recession that can happen under certain circumstances," Malpass added.

In a study published in mid-September, the World Bank warned that with central banks around the world simultaneously raising interest rates in response to inflation, the world could be heading for a global recession in 2023, with growth projections of just 0.5 percent.

In response to a question from Xinhua, Malpass said that the World Bank president indicated at the press conference that the world's population growth rate is estimated at 1.1 percent annually. "So if you're recording global growth at a much slower pace, that means people are getting worse."

Citing a recent report by the World Bank, Malpass said that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the biggest setback to global efforts to reduce poverty since 1990, pushing about 70 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, and that the war in Ukraine threatens to exacerbate matters.

According to the Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report, the global median income fell by 4 percent in 2020, the first decline since median incomes began to be measured in 1990.

"So if we have a global recession now, that would also put pressure on middle-income people, which means the number of people who are in the bottom half of the income scale is declining," Malpass said.

The World Bank chief also indicated that he was concerned about the concentration of capital in the world at the upper end of the advanced economies.

"I think this is one of the issues that the world has to deal with to allow capital to flow into new businesses and into developing countries, something that will require a change in the direction of fiscal and monetary policies in advanced economies," Malpass said.

He said that the world is facing a very difficult environment emanating from advanced economies, and this has serious repercussions and risks for developing countries, adding, "My deep concern is that these conditions and trends may continue in 2023 and 2024."