1. Global growth
The global economy is still struggling to return
to a strong and sustained growth path. World output,
which grew at a rate of 2.2 per cent in 2012, is forecast
to grow at a similar rate in 2013. Developed countries
will continue to lag behind the world average, with a
likely 1 per cent increase in gross domestic product
(GDP), due to a slight deceleration in the United States
and a continuing recession in the euro area. Developing
and transition economies should grow by about 4.7 per
cent and 2.7 per cent respectively (table 1.1). E ven
though these growth rates are significantly higher than
those of developed countries, they remain well below
their pre-crisis levels. Furthermore, they confirm the
pace of deceleration that started in 2012.
Economic activity in many developed countries
and a number of emerging market economies is still
suffering from the impacts of the financial and economic
crisis that started in 2008 and the persistence
of domestic and international imbalances that led
to it. However, continuing weak growth in several
countries may also be partly due to their current
macroeconomic policy stance.
Among developed economies, growth in the
European Union (EU) is expected to shrink for the
second consecutive year, with a particularly severe
economic contraction in the euro area. Private demand
remains subdued, especially in the euro-zone periphery
countries (Greece, I reland, I taly, Portugal and Spain),
due to high unemployment, wage compression, low
consumer confidence and the still incomplete process
of balance sheet consolidation. Given the ongoing
process of deleveraging, expansionary monetary
policies have failed to increase the supply of credit
for productive activities. I n this context, continued
fiscal tightening makes a return to a higher growth
trajectory highly unlikely, as it adds a deflationary
impulse to already weak private demand. While foreign
trade (mainly through the reduction of imports)
contributed to growth in the euro area, this was more
than offset by the negative effect of contracting
domestic demand, which even the surplus countries
have been reluctant to stimulate. This perpetuates
disequilibrium within the euro zone and reduces the
scope for an export-led recovery of other countries
in the zone. Hence, despite the fact that the tensions
in the financial markets of the euro area have receded
following intervention by the E uropean Central
Bank (ECB), prospects for a resumption of growth