(VOVworld) - The World Bank on Wednesday cut its global growth outlook for the year and urged developing economies to "fasten their seat belts" as they adjust to lower commodity prices and a looming rise in U.S. interest rates.

In its twice-yearly Global Economic Prospects report, the global development lender predicted the world economy would expand by 2.8 percent this year, below the predicted 3 percent in January. This was attributed to the slowdown of the two leading economies, the US and China, as well as a slow economic turnaround in Europe and Japan. The World Bank forecast that global economic growth at a more optimistic rate of around 3.3 percent.

Accoridng to the World Bank report, newly-emerging and developing economies are likely to face many challenges. If this scenario happens, the global financial markets will become unstable, thus economies might have difficulty in attracting foreign investment.