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Annual Report 2011
2011 Review World Economic Review
The world economic growth this year ended up far below anticipated. Developing and emerging economies, led by China and India, were the main drivers of global economic growth as a result of their stringent monetary policies to curb rising prices of oil and commodities while the economic growth of developed economies was continuously weakening. The US economy remained sluggish following the continued high unemployment, a non-recoverable property market, and limited success of the US government’s economic stimulation > |[ … ‹ œ Standard & Poor’s (S&P) consequently lowered the credit rating on the US long-term debt securities from AAA to AA+, a historic credit rating cut for the US. EU member countries, on the other hand, failed to resolve the huge public debts. The debt crisis has escalated from Greece, Ireland, and Portugal to Italy and Spain, two major regional economies. Consequently, S&P and Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) slashed credit ratings which triggered a series of blows to the world monetary and capital markets. In addition, the Great Earthquake and Tsunami of Japan devastated the global industrial supply which caused 2009-2011 World Economic Growth Unit: % yoy
Source: IMF, January 2012
major shortages of parts and materials for manufacturing worldwide, thus compounding the world economic contraction. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its January 2012 report, announced a world economic growth record for 2011 at 3.8%, a big drop from the 2011 level of 5.2%. The average economic growth for developing and emerging economies was recorded at 6.2%, while the record for developed countries was only 1.6%.