The World Economy

World output growth continues to recover from its trough in 2001, albeit rather hesitantly. The slowdown in output growth in 2001 was largely centred in the OECD, with the US, Japan and Germany all recording growth below 1 per cent. In the last three years growth has been robust in other regions, but particularly in Asia, with China and India growing rapidly. Even Latin America is expected to show some signs of recovery this year after the currency related disruptions it experienced in 2002. It is becoming clear that 2002 saw reasonably strong output growth of 2.8 per cent in aggregate, rising from 2.2 per cent in 2001. Our forecast for 2003 is that the annual rate of output growth in the world will continue to increase, but weakness in a number of countries, including the US, at the end of 2002 suggests that it will not accelerate further into next year. The impact of the realignment of the dollar and the euro will also hold back world growth slightly this year and next. Our forecasts for output growth and inflation along with trade and oil prices are set out in Table 1.