With talk of a change in the global economic pecking order, particularly around the new IMF chief, this post takes a long look at the world economy. It contrasts the current shares of world output with those of five hundred and two thousand years ago. The lessons of history – and the weight of maths – hold valuable lessons for Europe, as it seeks to find a new role in the world economy.
This post reviews the latest IMF data on global economic growth to 2015 and puts it in the context of what has happened since 1980. In real terms, the global economy will reach $100 trillion by 2015, more than three times its 1980 level. What might surprise Westerners, however, is that the pace of economic growth will actually be faster in the period 2008-2015 than the 1980s, 1990s or pre-Recession 2000s. This is because while growth is slowing in the West, which now contributes to the list of world’s slowest growing economies like never before, it’s accelerating across Asia and Africa.
This post explores the now freely available World Development Indicators, from the World Bank. In particular, it looks at urbanisation and the role for cities in development and creating wealth and well-being. Over the past 50 years, China in particular has urbanised fast. Over the next 50, India may be the centre of city growth. This presents development challenges but on balance is a huge opportunity.
A review of the IMF’s April 2009 World Economic Outlook, and an analysis of the fastest growing – and contracting – economies of 2009. The 2009 economic growth in Africa and Asia is welcome, and growth (albeit weaker) in China and India indicates the beginnings of self-sustaining domestic demand in those economies.
As everyone knows, economists and sociologists are the faculty equivalent of cats and dogs. As an economist, I’m more or less brought up to think that sociologists are a bit funny, really, and their models and ways of explaining the world around them good cannon fodder. Imagine my surprise, then, when I opened this book [...]
