World economic climate hit fresh lows: ICC
The world economic climate has worsened in the fourth quarter, as indicated by increasingly negative expectations from economic experts, according to the World Economic Survey (WES).
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Munich-based Institute for Economic Research published the report yesterday.
The poll asked 1,119 economic experts from business and academic institutions to assess current and expected economic developments in their 119 countries this past October. Their answers were analysed to reach a quarterly figure representative of the current economic climate.
Views on the world economic climate fell from a second quarter high of 107.7 points to 78.7 in the fourth quarter, marking the lowest point in the past two years, ICC said in a statement yesterday.
The falling figures reflect the waning optimism of expert expectations for the future, recording consecutive drops from 110.5 in the first quarter to 71.9 in the fourth, the statement added.
Expert assessment of the overall current economic situation fell from a second quarter high of 108.4 to a year low of 86.0.
"These results demonstrate the fragile state of the financial sector, particularly in public finance, and underscore the threat that the still relatively strong real economies of many countries could slide into recession,” said ICC Secretary General Jean-Guy Carrier.
“However, it is not too late to avoid this destructive scenario if politicians worldwide, and particularly in the euro area, succeed in convincing markets that the right decisions are being made to keep the financial sector under control.”
In North America, the economic climate further deteriorated, with the current economic situation increasingly assessed as unfavourable.
The expectations in the region for the next six months were less confident than in the third quarter but remained in positive territory, the report indicates.
In Asia, the economic climate indicator has fallen further and is now below its long-term average.
Expectations for the next six months continued to worsen in the region. And in Western Europe, a significantly more negative outlook was also brought on by a worsening economic climate.
The inflation estimate for all of 2011 remains at 4 percent on a global average, and the majority of WES experts expect unchanged interest rates over the course of the next six months.
In terms of currency, WES experts also agreed that the euro is overvalued and the yen comparatively more so.
On a worldwide average, the exchange rate of the US dollar is expected to remain largely stable over the next six months.
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