The International Monetary Fund has highlighted the key role of falling oil prices in its latest World Economic Outlook.
The IMF says global economic growth should be around 3.5% this year, with a pickup in the advanced economies of Europe and North America, but a weakening in emerging economies such as China, Russia and Brazil.
The Fund has forecast growth in Ireland at just under 4%.
The global growth forecast of 3.5% this year is unchanged, but the IMF say that masks a number of important developments affecting regional economies.
The most important of these is the price of oil, which has fallen by 45% since September.
This is helpful to advanced economies, and is acting as an economic stimulus. As a group, advanced economies are forecast to grow by 2.4% this year, compared with 1.8% last year.
The IMF says growth in the Euro Area is picking up, and should be 1.5% this year, up from 0.9% last year. But this is still half the 3% rate that the US is set to grow by.
Ireland is forecast to have growth of 3.9% - by far the highest in Europe or North America. Britain is forecast to grow by 2.7%.
The Euro Area is also seen as benefiting from the falling value of the currency, engineered by the ECB through its quantitative easing programme.
By contrast, oil exporting countries will see growth slip, particularly Russia, which is also facing problems from the Ukraine conflict, while China is expected to ease back on growth after a credit fuelled property boom.
Latin America's outlook will continue to weaken because of falling commodity prices. Brazil is particularly hard hit as it is facing a drought as well.
Growth in low income countries has stayed high. For this group, the IMF predicts that growth is expected to ease back from 6% to 5.5% this year, before rebounding again in 2016, due to stronger growth in trading partners in the advanced economies.
The IMF says risks to growth are more balanced than six months ago, but remain tilted to the downside. Macroeconomic risk has declined, but financial risks and geopolitical risks have increased.
It says further dollar appreciation (probably caused by rising interest rates) could trigger financial tension elsewhere, particularly in emerging markets.
Disruptive asset price shifts remain a concern for the IMF, amid low term and risk premiums in bond markets. The environment that has produced the current low yields, particularly on government bonds, is changing, and the IMF says there is scope for "surprises and strong market reactions".
Geopolitical tensions in Ukraine, the Middle East and West Africa could increase, generating regional and global spillover effects.
Stagnation and low inflation in advanced economies could also hamper the recovery, notwithstanding the recent upgrade in near term growth prospects for these economies.
The IMF urges a continuation of very low interest rates to support economic activity and lift inflation expectations.
It says there is also a strong case for some economies to increase infrastructure investment, and for structural reforms to tackle weaknesses exposed by the crisis, generate investment and boost potential output.
In particular advanced economies should make reforms to improve labour force participation and employment levels to deal with their ageing populations, and take measures to tackle private debt overhang.
