Spring may have sprung, but not all economists are sprightly about the outlook for the global economy.
In fact, as a Toronto audience heard Wednesday morning, the risk of a recession in Canada is “higher than normal,” the U.S. is set for “unspectacular” growth, Europe is poised for another downturn and even the BRIC countries will not be the economic drivers they had been in the past decade.
Those are the views of one of the more Eeyore-ish research firms around: London-based Capital Economics, whose conference Wednesday was entitled: “Is the world on the road to recovery?” (The answer: Sort of. But it will be a “long and fairly bumpy” road, one in which Europe is in danger of veering off).
I see nothing much to disagree with in that outlook, other than the possibility that their expectations might just be a bit rosier (or less gloomy, for the half-empty-glass group) than is warranted what with all of the inflationary monetary policies being implemented around the globe.
[i]Pax et bonum[/i],
Keith Töpfer