WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- World Bank on Tuesday raised its forecast for global economic growth in 2018 to 3.1 percent, saying that a broad-based recovery was underway across the world.

The forecast was 0.2 percentage point higher than its projections in June last year, said the Washington-based lender in its flagship Global Economic Prospects report.

"2018 is on track to be the first year since the financial crisis that the global economy will be operating at or near full capacity," said the lender.

It estimated that the global growth reached 3 percent in 2017, the strongest pace since 2011 and a notable recovery from a post-crisis low of 2.4 percent in 2016.

Growth increased in more than half of the world's economies in 2017, highlighting the broad-based nature of the recovery, said the lender.

It expected the global growth to slow to 3 percent in 2019 from 3.1 percent in 2018 and further down to 2.9 percent in 2020.