2025 in Review: People Who Shook the Global Economy in 2025

By Benadeta Mwaura - Reporter

22 December 2025 - In 2025, the global economy was shaped less by invisible market forces and more by the decisions of powerful individuals whose choices rippled across borders, industries and households.

From Washington to Beijing and Europe’s political capitals, leaders and policymakers redefined trade rules, investment flows and economic confidence, setting the tone for a world still searching for stability as it heads into 2026.

Few figures loomed as large over the global economic landscape as U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

His aggressive reshaping of American trade policy, anchored in steep tariffs on key trading partners, reignited trade wars and forced economies worldwide to rethink their relationship with the world’s largest consumer market.

Trump’s tariff regime sharply raised average U.S. import taxes, dragging trade policy back to the centre of global economic debate. Countries across Europe, the United Kingdom, Africa and Japan scrambled to renegotiate frameworks with Washington, while talks with China remained unresolved, prolonging uncertainty.

The impact went far beyond diplomatic tension.

Trump’s policies injected volatility into global markets, disrupting supply chains and delaying investment decisions.

Legal challenges to the tariff authority, some expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, added another layer of unpredictability.

Economists warn that if this uncertainty persists into 2026, it could dampen global growth. Yet some analysts argue that any easing of tariffs could restore confidence quickly, potentially lifting global GDP growth over the next two years.

As Washington unsettled global trade norms, Chinese President Xi Jinping pursued a quieter but equally consequential economic strategy.

While trade tensions with the United States intensified, China doubled down on long-term positioning, reinforcing supply chains, expanding overseas investment, and maintaining momentum in large-scale initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative.

China’s continued engagement with Africa and emerging markets helped anchor trade and infrastructure investment at a time of global flux.

China’s relative economic resilience in 2025 softened some of the shockwaves from U.S. protectionism.

Beijing’s sustained outreach ensured that it remained central to global industrial planning and investment strategies. Looking ahead to 2026, analysts see the risk of increasingly bifurcated trade blocs, as China and the U.S. pursue divergent economic paths.

For African economies, however, this realignment may open opportunities to plug into diversified supply chains and attract new forms of investment.

Europe found itself navigating an increasingly narrow path between competing global powers. Across the continent, political leaders, particularly in Germany, pushed for a more assertive European role in global governance and economic strategy.

Europe’s response to U.S. tariffs carried significant weight, given the bloc’s combined economic power. Decisions taken at the European Council on trade retaliation, defence spending and investment priorities influenced global confidence and supply chain planning throughout 2025.

As 2026 approaches, Europe could emerge as an alternative centre of economic leadership if tensions between Washington and Brussels persist. Strategic investments in green technology, defence industries, and digital regulation may shape Europe’s long-term growth trajectory while influencing global standards.

Inside the United States, another influential but less public figure emerged in 2025: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Blending market credibility with overt political alignment, Bessent represented a departure from traditional technocratic treasury leadership. His role signaled a shift in how economic policy intersects with domestic politics, a development closely watched by investors and global partners alike.

While political leaders captured headlines, central bank governors quietly shaped the global economic environment.

From the U.S. Federal Reserve to monetary authorities in emerging markets, decisions on interest rates and liquidity influenced inflation expectations, borrowing costs and capital flows. In Africa and other developing regions, policymakers adjusted their strategies in response to tightening or easing conditions abroad, highlighting how interconnected monetary policy has become.

The influence of global institutions also remained critical.

Under leaders such as IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, international organisations repeatedly warned that trade policy uncertainty was eroding confidence and weakening growth.

The OECD projected that global expansion in 2026 would remain modest, shaped by cautious investment and fragile trade relationships.

These forecasts are already informing government budgets, debt strategies and social spending plans worldwide.

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Taken together, the actions of these individuals and institutions point to several defining themes for 2026. Global growth is expected to remain moderate, constrained by lingering trade tensions and policy unpredictability.

Trade realignment is likely to continue, as countries adapt to shifting alliances and legal rulings. Investment decisions may remain cautious, particularly in sectors sensitive to tariffs and regulation.

At the same time, emerging markets, especially in Africa and Asia, could gain influence as supply chains diversify and global competition for new growth hubs intensifies.

In 2025, as global powers wrestled with trade tensions, tariffs and shifting alliances, African governments, including Kenya, carved out strategic economic engagements that could define the continent’s growth in 2026.

Kenya’s Cabinet, under President William Ruto, approved the creation of new infrastructure and sovereign wealth funds designed to reduce reliance on debt and attract long-term investment into roads, energy and industrial projects. This bold move was pivoted toward financing its development through innovative public-private mechanisms.

At the same time, Kenya inked a $311 million deal with Africa50 and India’s PowerGrid to build high-voltage transmission lines, aiming to stabilize the national power grid and unlock renewable energy potential, a move seen as critical for reducing production costs and stimulating manufacturing.

Amid these high-profile deals, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) played a quieter but equally consequential role in shaping Kenya’s domestic economic landscape.

Throughout 2025, the CBK implemented a series of consecutive interest rate cuts, lowering the benchmark rate into single digits, to stimulate private sector lending and support broader economic activity.

The Monetary Policy Committee’s actions helped sustain stable inflation and a resilient currency, encouraging confidence among investors and households alike even as global markets faced policy uncertainty.

In response to these developments, the government also embraced fiscal reforms aimed at broadening the tax base, auditing public debt, and aligning budget estimates with economic realities, efforts underscored by Treasury leadership as essential for long-term resilience.

Looking to 2026, Kenya’s blend of external deal-making and internal policy management positions it to navigate both global headwinds and domestic constraints.

Large trade and infrastructure partnerships could bolster foreign exchange and improve productivity, while an accommodative monetary policy may sustain credit growth and investment.

However, challenges remain, including a projected widening budget deficit and continued pressure on public finances that will require careful balancing of debt management and service delivery.

As Africa’s largest economy deepens its engagement with global partners and fortifies its financial foundations at home, the decisions taken in 2025 may well influence Kenya’s growth trajectory and investor confidence deep into 2026 and beyond.

As 2025 drew to a close, another major pillar of global economic engagement emerged in the health sector, with the United States embarking on a series of bilateral health cooperation agreements with several African nations under its new foreign aid strategy.

The shift reflects a broader reconfiguration of global health financing, moving away from traditional aid channels like USAID toward direct government-to-government partnerships aimed at building domestic health capacity and reducing long-term dependency on multilateral funding.

Kenya was the first African country to sign such an agreement, entering a five-year Health Cooperation Framework with the United States valued at about $1.6 billion approximately KSh208 billion.

The pact, signed in Washington, D.C., by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with President William Ruto in attendance, commits the U.S. to channeling funds directly into Kenyan government health institutions to support universal health coverage, equipment modernisation, and disease surveillance.

Kenya also agreed to increase its own health spending as part of the partnership.

Not far behind, Rwanda signed a $228 million health agreement with the United States under the same global health model, focusing on infectious disease control and outbreak preparedness, with Rwanda pledging complementary domestic investment.

Experts say similar pacts are expected to follow with Uganda and other countries, with Uganda reportedly negotiating up to $1.7 billion in U.S. funding under this strategy.

However, the rollout of the Kenyan agreement has hit a constitutional snag.

In mid-December 2025, the High Court in Nairobi issued conservatory orders suspending implementation of portions of the deal, particularly those involving the sharing or handling of health and epidemiological data, pending full hearings on petitions challenging the agreement’s legality.

Petitioners, including the Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK) and Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah, argued that the framework was concluded without adequate public participation or parliamentary involvement and that it could expose sensitive health information to foreign entities in ways that contravene Kenya’s Data Protection Act, the Digital Health Act, and constitutional safeguards on privacy and sovereignty.

Ultimately, 2025 was a year defined by people, leaders whose policies reverberated through markets, trade routes and household economies. Whether the global economy in 2026 becomes more fragmented, more balanced or newly aligned around emerging centres of growth will depend on how these same figures, and those who succeed them, choose to navigate an increasingly complex economic world.