According to the World Bank, interest rate hikes by central banks around the world could trigger a global recession in 2023.
Central banks have raised rates “with a degree of synchronicity not seen over the past five decades” to tackle soaring prices, it said.
Raising rates makes borrowing more expensive to try to bring down the pace of price rises.
But it also makes loans more costly, which can slow economic growth.
The warning from the World Bank comes ahead of monetary policy meetings by the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England, which are expected to increase key interest rates next week.
US mortgage rates hit a 14-year high as inflation soars
World Bank boss warns of global recession threat
On Thursday, the World Bank said the global economy was in its steepest slowdown since 1970.
It said a study found that “the world’s three largest economies – the US, China, and the euro area – have been slowing sharply”.
“Under the circumstances, even a moderate hit to the global economy over the next year could tip it into recession,” it said.
The World Bank also called on central banks to coordinate their actions and “communicate policy decisions clearly” to “reduce the degree of tightening needed”.
Inflation, which is the rate at which prices rise, hit a 40-year-high in the US and UK in recent months.
This was driven by higher demand as pandemic restrictions eased, and as the war in Ukraine boosted energy, fuel, and food prices.
In response, central bank policymakers have raised interest rates to cool demand from households and businesses.
However, big rate increases increase the risk of recession as it can cause an economy to slow.
Central banks do not typically run policy decisions by their counterparts.
They have in the past, however, coordinated their actions to support the global economy.
In 2007, a global financial crisis was precipitated by a subprime mortgage crisis in the US.
This developed into a full-blown crash after the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank in September 2008.
A month later, the Fed, along with the European Central Bank and central banks in Canada, Sweden, and Switzerland, jointly lowered their key interest rates.
They said in a statement that the “intensification of the financial crisis has augmented the downside risks to growth and thus has diminished further the upside risks to price stability”.
“Some easing of global monetary conditions is therefore warranted,” they added.