Ukraine war fallout: Polarised global economy could break into distinct blocs

SINGAPORE - Increased polarisation of the global economy over Russia's war in Ukraine could portend the emergence of distinct geopolitical blocs, with decades-old supply chains, trade ties and cross-border payment systems severed permanently in a so-called "fragmentation" of the global economy, experts have warned.

"Since the early 1980s, for nearly four decades, the world leaders seemed determined to integrate the global economic system. Now they are equally resolute in fragmenting it, though they won't characterise it as such," said Dr Deepak Mishra, director and chief executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.