Institutional Investor (March Issue)
Chile is facing a “Paradox of Prosperity: Strong growth puts Chile on the verge of becoming Latin America’s first developed economy while fueling popular discontent.”
Tags: Chile, Discontent, Economy, Growth, Latin America, Prosperity
Financial Times (March 22)
“China is on track for a fourth consecutive decade of rapid growth and will overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy in 2016.” The prediction comes from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which predicts China’s economy will reach 8.5% growth in 2013 and 8.9% in 2014.
Institutional Investor (March Issue)
“The European Central Bank’s recent moves have helped lighten the mood for investors in the euro zone.” It is true the dark cloud is rising, yet “Europe’s economic situation is still precarious, and any number of potential shocks could widen spreads and dampen returns. Moreover, policymakers have yet to address the region’s long-term growth prospects.”
Tags: Dark cloud, ECB, Euro zone, Growth, Policymakers, Returns, Shocks, Spreads
Institutional Investor (February Issue)
“Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is releasing huge new supplies of natural gas and promising to revive the American economy with cheap energy. The U.S. energy boom may “create 3 million jobs and boost economic growth by 1 to 1.5 percentage points a year between now and 2020.” Chemical and agricultural companies are also poised to benefit from the lower cost of raw materials and energy.
Barron’s (November 5)
“It has been an eventful year in Brazil, though perhaps not in the way investors would have liked. The country’s growth has stalled to an expected 1.5% this year—a figure not exactly befitting an emerging market, especially one that not so long ago had been growing at four times that rate.” Despite the bad economic news, however, four experts assembled at a Barron’s roundtable believe Brazil investors have “reason for optimism.”
Tags: Brazil, Emerging market, Growth, Investors, Optimism
Investment Week (October 25)
Unfazed by a recent slump in the Dow, veteran investor Warren Buffet is taking advantage of the chance to increase his equity holdings. “If the market is down, I am happier buying. If I go to the supermarket and they have reduced prices, I feel better. So if I go to the stock exchange and they have reduced prices I feel better.” Indeed, he believes growth will continue in the U.S., which has stronger fundamentals than Europe.
Washington Post (October 24)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its World Economic Outlook. It predicts that during the next four years, the U.S. “will be the strongest of the world’s rich economies. U.S. growth is forecast to average 3 percent, much stronger than that of Germany or France (1.2 percent) or even Canada (2.3 percent). Increasingly, the evidence suggests that the United States has come out of the financial crisis of 2008 in better shape than its peers — because of the actions of its government.”
Tags: Canada, Financial Crisis, France, Germany, Government, Growth, IMF, U.S., World Economic Outlook
The Economist (September 29)
“Growth at last appears to be returning to Britain’s economy…. The squeeze on real take-home pay is easing as inflation falls and wages edge up. Business surveys suggest activity is picking up…. which suggests the current quarter will see a positive figure for GDP growth.” In 2009, the UK experienced a “false dawn.” With “countless threats to renewed recovery,” leaders should avoid choking this recovery to make up for revenue shortfalls.
Tags: Economy, False dawn, GDP, Growth, Recovery, Revenue shortfalls, Threats, UK
New York Times (September 16)
“On the most basic level, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is responsible for saving and creating 2.5 million jobs. The majority of economists agree that it helped the economy grow by as much as 3.8 percent, and kept the unemployment rate from reaching 12 percent.”
The Economist (July 14)
With unemployment over 8% and full year growth expected to now come in at less than 2%, the U.S. economy still looks weak. The Economist notes, however, the ”comeback kid” is making progress. “America’s economy is certainly in a tender state. But the pessimism of the presidential slanging-match misses something vital. Led by its inventive private sector, the economy is remaking itself …. Old weaknesses are being remedied and new strengths discovered, with an agility that has much to teach stagnant Europe and dirigiste Asia.”
Tags: Asia, Comeback kid, Economy, Europe, Growth, U.S., Unemployment
