Two-thirds of private and public sector chief economists surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) expect a global recession in 2023.

About 18% consider a global recession extremely likely - more than double the number in the previous September 2022 survey. Only a third of respondents consider it unlikely this year.

"The current high inflation, low growth, high debt and high fragmentation environment reduces incentives for the investments needed to get back to growth and raise living standards for the world's most vulnerable," WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi said in a statement accompanying the survey results.

The survey was based on responses from a group of senior economists from international agencies, including the International Monetary Fund, investment banks, multinational corporations and reinsurance groups.

The poll came after the World Bank last week cut its growth forecasts for 2023 to near recessionary levels for many countries, as the impact of central bank interest rate hikes intensifies, the war in Ukraine continues, and major global economic engines stop working, Reuters noted.

Definitions of recession vary around the world, but usually include the prospect of a shrinking economy, possibly with high inflation in a stagflation scenario.

As for inflation, the WEF study found large regional differences, with the proportion expecting high inflation in 2023 ranging from as little as 5% in China to 57% in Europe, where the impact of last year's energy price increases has spread to the economy as a whole.

Most economists see further monetary tightening in Europe and the United States (59% and 55%, respectively), with policymakers caught between the risks of too much or too little tightening.