Global growth is expected to increase slightly this year while remaining stuck below its pre-pandemic average, the IMF said Friday, flagging the growing economic divide between the United States and European countries.

Global growth is expected to hold at an annual rate of 2.7 percent for the next two years, the same as in 2024, the bank’s economists said.

The global economy is growing steadily in the face of war, protectionist trade policies and high interest rates. It just isn’t growing fast enough to bring relief to the world’s poorest, the World Bank said Thursday in its latest assessment of the global economy.