The World Economy

2003 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 8-33

Risks of a US driven slowdown in world activity have receded in the past few months, as US consumer demand remains robust. However, a worsened outlook for Germany and Japan suggests that the recovery will be more gradual than previously anticipated, in part as a consequence of the strengthening of the euro and the yen against the dollar in recent months. We estimate that world growth recorded a modest improvement in 2002, rising to 2.7 per cent from 2.2 per cent in 2001. However, regional cyclical variation increased last year. While 2001 saw a sharp slowdown in growth across all the major regions of the world, with the world's three largest economies recording outright recessions, growth accelerated last year in the US, China and Dynamic Asia, but slowed further in the EU, Japan and South America.

2004 ◽  
Vol 187 ◽  
pp. 8-35

The two key factors underlying our forecast this quarter are the continued depreciation of the US$, which is about 4½ per cent weaker in effective terms than in October and 18 per cent below its recent peak in early 2002, and the emergence of what appears to be a sustainable recovery in Japan. Our projections for world growth this year incorporate significant upward revisions for the world's two largest economies, the US and Japan, while the outlook for the EU and Canada remains largely unchanged, although they also gain modest support from stronger demand in the US and Asia.


2007 ◽  
Vol 200 ◽  
pp. 7-30 ◽  

The global economy expanded by 5.3 per cent in 2006, one of the fastest rates of growth in the past 35 years. We project further expansions of 5 per cent this year and 4¾ per cent in 2008. The key risks to the forecast that we highlight in this Review relate to global housing markets and the current stance of monetary policy. The US economy is restrained by the recent correction in its housing market, which is expected to continue to weigh on the economy through 2008. There is some concern that the housing investment downturn may spread to other economies, and in this report we explore the areas most at risk to such a contagion. We also consider the recent volatility in the oil price, which makes it difficult for monetary authorities to distinguish signal from noise. If too much emphasis is placed on what subsequently turns out to be noise, policy settings could turn out to be overly lax or stringent.


2008 ◽  
Vol 206 ◽  
pp. 74-82
Author(s):  
Dawn Holland ◽  
Ray Barrell ◽  
Tatiana Fic ◽  
Sylvia Gottschalk ◽  
Ian Hurst ◽  
...  

Over the past few weeks, the global financial system has appeared on the brink of collapse, as mounting bank losses and a lack of banking liquidity have resulted in a wave of collapsing financial institutions across Europe and the US. While the immediate threat to the financial system appears to have been averted, the continuing deleveraging process, declining asset prices and heightened uncertainty regarding the viability of financial institutions have sharply reduced the willingness and ability of banks to lend to each other and to other borrowers, and at the same time reduced the willingness of borrowers to increase their levels of debt. As the events of recent weeks have unfolded, it has become increasingly clear that the fallout from the financial market crisis will continue to restrict bank lending severely for at least the next several months, pushing the world's major economies into recession. As a consequence, growth in the OECD economies next year is projected to be the weakest since 1982, with output forecast to rise by just 0.4 per cent.


2007 ◽  
Vol 201 ◽  
pp. 8-14

In 2006, global output, measured in terms of purchasing power parities, expanded by 5.4 per cent, the fastest rate of growth since 1973. Despite a higher oil price and the recent rise in global long-term interest rates, we expect world growth to remain above 5 per cent this year, with a slowdown in the US offset by the rapidly expanding China and stable growth in the EU and Japan. In this issue we explore the widening divergence between the return on investment and real interest rates in the major economies. This suggests that despite the recent rise in long real rates it remains profitable for firms to invest in many countries.


European View ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-57
Author(s):  
José María Aznar López

Despite the ascendance of other regions in the world, the transatlantic relationship remains paramount. The cultural, historic and economic links between the US and Europe are strong and important. Notwithstanding the strength of these bonds, Europe has lost currency for US foreign policy as it has moved its focus to Asia. This can be attributed to the lack of coordination on the part of the Europeans and preoccupation with the EU's institutional debate. Now that the Lisbon Treaty has been ratified, the institutional debate is in the past and the EU must redouble its efforts to strengthen the transatlantic partnership. Going forward, the only way that the transatlantic partnership can be strengthened and for prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic to be assured is the removal of all trade barriers and the introduction of the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour across the Atlantic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huw Roberts ◽  
Josh Cowls ◽  
Emmie Hine ◽  
Francesca Mazzi ◽  
Andreas Tsamados ◽  
...  

AbstractOver the past few years, there has been a proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) strategies, released by governments around the world, that seek to maximise the benefits of AI and minimise potential harms. This article provides a comparative analysis of the European Union (EU) and the United States’ (US) AI strategies and considers (i) the visions of a ‘Good AI Society’ that are forwarded in key policy documents and their opportunity costs, (ii) the extent to which the implementation of each vision is living up to stated aims and (iii) the consequences that these differing visions of a ‘Good AI Society’ have for transatlantic cooperation. The article concludes by comparing the ethical desirability of each vision and identifies areas where the EU, and especially the US, need to improve in order to achieve ethical outcomes and deepen cooperation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 4-15
Author(s):  
I.I. Smotritskaya

The article deals with conceptual issues related to the adaptation of the Russian economy to the new financial and economic reality that is emerging as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic. The current state of the world economy is studied, the main characteristic features of the «new reality» are highlighted, and the complex of anti-crisis measures implemented in the US and the EU is considered. The results of forecast assessments of the consequences of the pandemic for the economy of our country in the short and long term are analyzed; the principles, priorities and vectors of post-crisis development of the Russian economy are substantiated.


Author(s):  
Paul Gootenberg

Coca leaf (“chewed” by indigenous Andean peoples) and cocaine (the notorious modern illicit drug trafficked from the Andes) are deeply emblematic of South America, but neither has attracted the in-depth archival research they deserve. Their two modern histories are closely linked. Coca leaf, a part of Andean indigenous lifeways for thousands of years, is the raw ingredient for the alkaloid drug cocaine, discovered in 1860, and illicit peasant coca plots in the western Amazon of Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia have been the source for the infamous illicit cocaine “cartels” since the 1970s. The two drugs’ fates have both had surprisingly shifting trajectories and meanings across the colonial, national, and modern eras. They have also distinctively linked the Andes to the outside world and national political cultures of the three chief Andean states. Bolivia has the most continuous history with coca, related to the highland geography of its indigenous majority, though coca leaf only became a “nationalist” symbol over the past fifty years or so. Peru was home to the world’s first legal cocaine industries, starting in the 1880s, and coca and illicit cocaine have interacted in complex ways ever since. Colombia had the least coca traditions, and was the last nation to develop illicit cocaine exports in the 1970s and 1980s, although with a dramatic impact on Colombia and the world. This largely unknown and changeable history underlies the present-day crossroads of coca and cocaine: will the US-abetted Andean “drug wars” against cocaine continue, despite their long failures, and will coca’s place as a symbol of cultural and national pride in the Andes be fully restored?


1995 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 30-52
Author(s):  
Ray Barrell ◽  
Nigel Pain ◽  
Julian Morgan

Output growth throughout the OECD has been rising this year, and several economies including the US, Canada and the UK look as if are reaching their cyclical peak. Other economies, such as France, Italy and Spain, are still operating below capacity, but have been growing rapidly enough to prevent output gaps widening. Output gaps in Europe appear to be small, and Barrell and Sefton (below) calculate they could be approaching zero. This upturn in activity has been unlike most in the post-Bretton Woods era, as inflation has not, until recently, begun to rise. Inflation in the US was, it appears, lower in 1994 than in the previous four years, despite a strong output recovery. The appreciation of the yen, and the subsequent recession have, of course, kept Japanese inflation low. However, exchange-rate movements are part of a process of ‘sharing’ world inflation, and over the past three years there has been little to share. For example, inflation in Europe has been lower than we anticipated 18 months ago, even though a slowdown in activity was already apparent then.


1988 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 18-31
Author(s):  
R.J. Barrell ◽  
Andrew Gurney

The upturn in economic activity that has been clearly visible for the last year in both Japan and the US now appears to be spreading to Europe. The factors affecting the upturn are diverse, but it appears to be investment led, at least in the US and Japan, and to a lesser extent in Germany and the UK. Chart 1 plots the investment to income ratio for the major four economies over the past, along with our forecast for the medium term. The investment-income ratio has fallen in France and Germany over the past ten years, but it has reached relatively high levels in Japan in the last four years.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document