It appears as though enthusiasm about “economic green shoots” has been a bit premature. The World Bank has announced that it is cutting its global growth forecast for 2009, showing that economic uncertainty still remains. There are a number of factors at play here, but one of them appears to be higher oil prices. With prices rising on the hope of rapid economic recovery, speculation has sent oil prices high enough that they are cutting into consumer spending and contributing to the slow down. At least, many analysts feel that higher oil prices could slow global economic recovery.

Another issue is the fact that many probably just jumped the gun. With signs that the recession may be coming to a close, over-eager investors and analysts have been looking forward to economic recovery. However, any economic recovery is likely to come slowly, as evidenced by the new World Bank forecast.

It is important to remember that this recession isn’t going to be completely reversed overnight. These things take time. The recession isn’t likely to come to a complete end until the close of this year, and economic recovery will be happening all through 2010 and into 2011.