© Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
The Global Risks Report 2017 says the greatest threats are posed by unemployment or underemployment, energy price shock, deflation, fiscal crises and asset bubbles in the main economies.
"This year's findings are testament to five key challenges the world now faces. The first two are in the economic category, in line with the fact that rising income and wealth disparity is rated by respondents to the Global Risks Perception Survey as the most important trend in determining global developments over the next 10 years," the report reads.
Failure of the major financial institutions, unmanageable inflation, and the shortfall in critical infrastructure are among the most significant concerns, according to the WEF.
"This points to the need for reviving economic growth, but the growing mood of anti-establishment populism suggests we may have passed the stage where this alone would remedy fractures in society: reforming market capitalism must also be added to the agenda," the WEF stresses.
The analysts link unemployment, set as one of the biggest risks, to the vast technological change.
"Although anti-establishment politics tends to blame globalization for deteriorating domestic job prospects, evidence suggests that managing technological change is a more important challenge for labor markets," the report says.
WEF estimated that 7.1 million jobs could be eliminated due to redundancy, automation or disintermediation, with 2.1 million new jobs created, mainly in more specialized areas including math, architecture, computing and engineering. That could partially offset some losses, according to the experts.
Comment: According to Reuters, German Chancellor Angela Merkel - who faces a crucial election this year as she runs for her 4th term as German chancellor amid sagging approval ratings - is steering clear of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a meeting expected to be dominated by debate over the looming presidency of Donald Trump "and rising public anger with elites and globalization", which is ironic because just two years prior, the topic was rising wealth inequality which the world's billionaires blasted, lamented and, well, got even richer as nothing at all changed.
See also: Angela Merkel to skip Davos again amid blowback against 'Global Elite'