Europe Economics Update Draghi & Letta proposals are no silver bullet In principle, an increase in EU integration and cooperation, as proposed by Enrico Letta in April and Mario Draghi today, could increase output in the long run. But any progress will be slow, and the... 9th September 2024 · 4 mins read
Africa Economics Update Unpacking South Africa’s structural growth problem There’s growing optimism that South Africa’s economy is set for a period of faster growth under the Government of National Unity (GNU). And we think a combination of lower interest rates and higher... 22nd August 2024 · 4 mins read
UK Economics Weekly Is the UK enjoying ‘Goldilocks’ conditions? The good news just kept coming this week. The economy grew at an above-trend rate for the second quarter in a row in Q2, the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%. At 2.2%, CPI inflation is only a touch... 16th August 2024 · 6 mins read
Long Run Update Will ageing populations drag on productivity? As well as adversely impacting the growth of the workforce, ageing populations may also have a small negative impact on productivity. There is plenty of scope for this to be offset by a positive boost... 29th July 2024 · 3 mins read
Canada Economics Focus Stronger productivity growth ahead There are several structural factors that explain the underperformance of Canadian productivity growth compared to the US since the 1980s, but the underperformance in the last few years specifically... 23rd July 2024 · 15 mins read
China Economics Update Plenum Decision fleshes out existing reform agenda The complete Third Plenum “Decision” document provides interesting details on the leadership’s reform agenda across a range of areas. Overall though, it reinforces the central message in last week’s... 22nd July 2024 · 7 mins read
UK Economics Focus The economic priorities for the new government It is not inevitable that the economic malaise of the past 20-30 years will continue over the next decade. Some of the cyclical forces that have lowered the UK’s economic growth rate will fade and new... 10th July 2024 · 15 mins read
Japan Economics Update More dynamism not lifting productivity yet While there are tentative signs that Japan’s economy is becoming more dynamic, this has yet to produce significant improvements in aggregate productivity. We still think that a more meaningful pick-up... 10th July 2024 · 3 mins read
Japan Economics Update Revisiting the puzzle of falling job vacancies While the official job openings figures have fallen since late-2022, the bulk of the evidence suggests that firms are facing increasingly severe job shortages. One explanation for the fall in job... 12th June 2024 · 4 mins read
CE Spotlight Spotlight: Chapter 2 - Will the US retain its economic lead and who might challenge it? The US’s economic leadership is partly related to its sheer size, but its population also works more than other countries and it fares better on productivity. While the US economy faces various... 10th June 2024 · 39 mins read
CE Spotlight Spotlight: Executive Summary: The future of global macro and markets leadership We expect the US to remain the world’s pre-eminent global economy for the foreseeable future. Not only will its own economic performance remain comparatively strong – not least as the advent of AI... 10th June 2024 · 6 mins read
Europe Economics Focus German manufacturing: from growth driver to drag Germany’s manufacturing sector has been in relative decline since around 2017. We think it will continue to shrink in the coming years and expect productivity growth in the sector to remain relatively... 18th April 2024 · 8 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Update Productivity malaise may last until end of this decade Weak capital spending is a key reason for Australia’s poor productivity performance. While investment growth has been strong recently, we think it will take until the second half of this decade before... 15th April 2024 · 4 mins read
Asia Economics Focus Taiwan: Global AI spending will drive rapid growth Taiwan will be one of the main beneficiaries of a lengthy global AI investment boom. We expect its economy to growth much faster over the rest of this decade than it did during the 2010s. 9th April 2024 · 8 mins read
