Due to the continuing impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the World Bank has lowered its global economic growth forecast for 2022 and plans to mobilize a larger package of funds than COVID-19 's response to the epidemic to help countries cope with various resulting and ongoing crises.

The World Bank has cut its forecast for global economic growth in 2022 to 3.2 per cent from 4.1 per cent in January, and David Malpass, the bank's president, said on Monday that the decline was due to a lower outlook for Europe and Central Asia, including Russia and Ukraine.

Malpass said he expected to discuss a 15-month crisis response plan with the World Bank board in the coming weeks, totaling about $170 billion, covering the period from April 2022 to June next year, of which about $50 billion would be deployed over the next three months.

"given the continuation of the crisis, this is a sustained and large-scale crisis response," he said, adding that the new initiative would exceed the $157 billion raised for the early stages of COVID-19 's epidemic.

Malpass's comments and plans come as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank hold a spring meeting in Washington this week, which will focus on food security, inflation, debt and the impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The World Bank announced last month a $3 billion financing plan for Ukraine, which is expected to be approved and deployed in the coming months.

Malpass said he expects the debt crisis in low-and middle-income countries to worsen by 2022. The largest economies have made slow progress in their plans to help debt-laden developing countries restructure their debt, with a $35 billion debt due this year.

"countries face severe fiscal pressure-60 per cent of low-income countries are already in debt distress or are at high risk of debt distress," Malpass said. He reiterated his call to improve the so-called common framework of the G-20 to restructure the debt of countries at risk of default.