WEF-Chief Economists Outlook: January 2023
January 16, 2023--The January 2023 Chief Economists Outlook is published amid continuing economic uncertainty and challenges of historic proportions. As the world puts another tumultuous year behind it, governments, businesses and households will all have to grapple with persistent headwinds throughout 2023.
Financial conditions remain tight, with little scope for significant loosening, despite much of the world economy being at risk of recession. However, according to the latest survey of the World Economic Forum's Community of Chief Economists, there are tentative grounds for optimism, including the prospect of an easing of the cost-of-living and energy crises by the end of this year.
view the WEF
Source: WEF (world Economic Forum)
The global growth story of the 21st century: driven by investment and innovation in green technologies and artificial intelligence
This new growth story is beginning: in the next 5 years more than half of the tipping points for crucial green technologies will have been met, making them competitive in key markets. The process of structural and systemic change will be multi-decadal. But this decade is decisive to limit the risk of greater climate instability. Acceleration now is essential. AI is creating real opportunities for this acceleration.
The faster growth of Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) relative to richer countries and the location of renewable energy sources will change the world's industrial geography and patterns of trade. If managed well, these changes can make supply chains more diverse and less fragile; multiple sources of key products and inputs will be necessary. The race has started, with countries across the world competing in investment support to gain dynamic comparative advantage, such as the $1trn US Inflation Reduction Act with its strong focus on green technologies.
Source: weforum.org
WEF-Global Risks Report 2023
The first years of this decade have heralded a particularly disruptive period in human history. The return to a "new normal" following the COVID-19 pandemic was quickly disrupted by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, ushering in a fresh series of crises in food and energy-triggering problems that decades of progress had sought to solve. view the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2023
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
Sharp, Long-lasting Slowdown to Hit Developing Countries Hard
Given fragile economic conditions, any new adverse development-such as higher-than-expected inflation, abrupt rises in interest rates to contain it, a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, or escalating geopolitical tensions-could push the global economy into recession. This would mark the first time in more than 80 years that two global recessions have occurred within the same decade.
The global economy is projected to grow by 1.7% in 2023 and 2.7% in 2024. The sharp downturn in growth is expected to be widespread, with forecasts in 2023 revised down for 95% of advanced economies and nearly 70% of emerging market and developing economies.
Source: worldbank.org
Dozens of companies ejected from FTSE4Good indices
The index provider has removed 34 groups from its FTSE4Good All-World benchmark after deciding they failed to meet its newly introduced Climate Change Score.
Source: ft.com
ETF industry storms through 2022's headwinds
ETFs attracted net inflows of $867bn globally during the year, the second-highest on record after 2021's $1.29tn peak, according to data from BlackRock, despite the market crash.
Source: ft.com
World Bank-2022 in Nine Charts
The world's three largest economies-the United States, China, and the euro area-have been sharply slowing. Under the circumstances, even a moderate hit to the global economy over the next year could tip it into recession.
January 13, 2023--The world has in its hands a new growth and development story driven by investment and innovation in green technology, boosted by artificial intelligence (AI); it is a much more attractive and inclusive story than the dirty and destructive paths followed in the past.
January 11, 2023--January 11, 2023--The world faces a set of risks that feel both wholly new and eerily familiar. The Global Risks Report 2023 explores some of the most severe risks we may face over the next decade. As we stand on the edge of a low-growth and low-cooperation era, tougher trade-offs risk eroding climate action, human development and future resilience.
January 10, 2023--2023 global growth to slow to 1.7% from 3% expected six months ago
Global growth is slowing sharply in the face of elevated inflation, higher interest rates, reduced investment, and disruptions caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to the World Bank's latest Global Economic Prospects report.
January 10, 2023--Failure to satisfy index provider on new climate rules excludes 34 groups from widely tracked benchmarks
FTSE Russell has ejected dozens of companies from a family of stock indices for failing to meet more stringent environmental standards, the first time it has taken such a step.
January 9, 2023--Government bond vehicles chalk up record inflows helping overall total reach $867bn -the second-highest on record
Last year may have been one of the worst years ever for global markets, but sections of the exchange traded fund industry stormed to new records in a generally strong year that underlined the vehicles' accelerating growth.
January 6, 2023--Slowing Growth
The confluence of crises that defined 2022 continue to hamper global growth. The global economy is now in its steepest slowdown following a post-recession recovery since 1970-with global consumer confidence already suffering a much sharper decline than during the run-up to previous global recessions.
Source: worldbank.org
IMF Working Paper-Why Some Don't Belong-The Distributional Effects of Natural Disasters
January 6, 2022--Summary:
When and how do natural disasters worsen within-country income inequality? We highlight the channels through which natural disasters may have distributional effects and empirically analyze when and which type of disasters affect inequality in advanced economies (AEs) and in emerging and developing economies (EMDEs).
We find that in AEs inequality increases after severe disasters. We also find that inequality increases if severe disasters are associated with growth slowdowns or there are multiple disasters in a year in AEs and in EMDEs. Descriptive evidence for the US also suggests that adverse labor market effects of disasters are likely to fall on vulnerable groups.
Source: imf.org
These are trends shaping the future of foodÂ
January 3, 2023--An FAO report warns of the risks and challenges facing global agrifood systems.
It calls for urgent action to address these issues.
The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos will explore food security as one of a series of interconnected global problems.
Our ability to feed a growing global population is under threat, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The future of food and agriculture: Drivers and triggers for transformation, released in December 2022, warns that without broader changes on a socioeconomic and environmental level, we will not be able to build and maintain sustainable agrifood systems.
"Many of the SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals) are not on track and will only be achieved if agrifood systems are transformed properly to withstand ongoing global adversity that undermines food security and nutrition due to growing structural inequalities and also regional inequalities," FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said at a launch event.
Source: weforum.org
Clutch of emerging markets bucks trend with huge ETF outperformance
December 28, 2022--Chile, India, Mexico and South Korea record year-on-year growth even as global assets fell
Financial markets may have slumped across most of the world in 2022, but a handful of countries are on track to see growth in exchange traded fund assets despite the headwind of plummeting valuations.
The resilience attests to the growing adoption of ETFs around the globe-particularly in some emerging market economies where uptake has lagged behind more developed countries-as well as some pockets of resistance in financial markets themselves.
Source: ft.com