Cautious Economic Optimism is Back

摘要

Growth forecasts for the global economy have turned decidedly more optimistic in the past few months. The International Monetary Fund, for example, predicts that the growth in world output will increase from a disappointing 3% last year to 3.6% this year and 3.9% next year. This is a significant improvement, representing more than US$400 billion in additional annual incomes and 24 million additional jobs distributed around the world, relative to last year's growth performance. In a world where hundreds of millions remain involuntarily unemployed, this is big news.