ISAS Briefs

As the global economy is slowly emerging from the devastating 2008-09 recession, China and India have been leading the way in global growth, both nearing the double-digit markers in regards to their respective gross domestic product (GDP) growth. At the same time this growth has not been universal. The United States (US) has revived to some positive numbers but it still remains under-par in historical comparison. Situations in Western Europe have proved to be even worse. Several countries have been facing crises with balance of payments (BoP). Britain has had negative growth of one-quarter, which, followed by another such quarter drop, would bring the country back into a recession. Japan’s severe earthquake and resulting tsunami has knocked down the country’s economy and there is likely to be a drop in the future rate of economic growth. This clearly means that for the moment, economic activity will be in Asia and within the continent’s largest economies, China and India. What will these trends portend for the global economy?