Well, using the present situation in my own country as a reference,  I will completely agree that what your colleague told you is absolutely true, actually, you did not say or mention the country you are from, but over here, things have become really worst and unbearable for many, price of things in the market have increased for more than 300 percent for each, for some items, most especially the ones that are being imported into the country, those ones have increased like more than 500 or 600 percents as a while of our local currency losing value against the dollar, and yet, workers salaries have remains the same for all of this months this has happened, a 50kg bad of rice is now sold 5x to 6x more than it was sold 2 years ago.

If the way things are in my country is the same way it is for all other countries and the world at large, then indeed, the world economy is gradually collapsing.