IHS Global Insight on the world’s economy: Stuck in a soft expansion

IHS Global Insight, Lexington, Mass., just released an early-bird glimpse of its May World Economic Forecast. The international economic consulting firm says, “The global economic outlook remains lackluster, with real GDP growth predicted at only 2.5% in 2013 and then gradually accelerating to 3.5% in 2014. The sustained weak growth is the result of deleveraging (including very tight fiscal policies) and political uncertainties in the United States and Europe.
May 17, 2013

IHS Global Insight, Lexington, Mass., just released an early-bird glimpse of its May World Economic Forecast. IHS Chief Economist Nariman Behravesh and IHS Global Insight economist Sara Johnson , said, “The global economic outlook remains lackluster, with real GDP growth predicted at only 2.5% in 2013 and then gradually accelerating to 3.5% in 2014. The sustained weak growth is the result of deleveraging (including very tight fiscal policies) and political uncertainties in the United States and Europe.

“In the emerging world, there are few signs of a growth rebound and these economies (including China) will not be locomotives of global growth any time soon. Going forward, there could be positive growth surprises from the United States, Japan, parts of Asia, Africa, and Northern Europe. On the other hand, growth in Southern Europe and China could surprise on the downside.”

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Jim Lucy Blog

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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.