The World Bank has predicted that the global economy will start a slow recovery in 2015 but warns that the world is becoming overly reliant on the United States' fledgling economic upturn as the “single engine” of growth.

As a whole, the global economy is expected to grow by 3 percent in 2015, and 3.3 percent in the following year - down from he World Bank's earlier forecast of 3.4 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

The report predicted that low oil prices would provide some stimulation - but the benefits of cheap energy would be offset by the continued sluggish performance of most of the world's major economies. These low prices will have obvious negative consequences for oil producing nations.

Deflationary pressure is expected to remain on all developed economies - apart from the UK and the US.

The regional breakdown says that Europe and Central Asia are facing a tough challenge to leave 2014's poor performance behind in the new year.

The World Bank predicts that the euro zone will begin a gradual recovery that will also improve Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Turkey's prospects.

In contrast to this - it predicts that the Russian economy will have a poor 2015 - and that this will have a negative impact on its neighbouring countries that lie further east than the end of the European Union.