UNCTAD forecasts global GDP growth slowing to 2.6% in 2026

A slower global growth path matters for real-world asset and tokenization narratives because demand for yield-bearing, cash-flowing instruments tends to track the broader investment cycle rather than decouple from it. The sharper deceleration in developing economies is the more consequential detail, since those markets have been a core source of RWA pipeline and crypto adoption. Asia's outsized contribution to growth also suggests where issuance and trading activity may concentrate. Whether that regional skew holds through the year is the open question.