To continue to lift millions out of poverty, raise living standards of emerging middle-class consumers and entrench economic growth, African economies must accelerate the creation of wage-paying jobs.
Few US bank executives believe their local economies will improve in the next six months, and they take a dimmer view of the national outlook. A Grant Thornton survey found that 27.5% see an improving local economy, down from 44% who expected improvement in 2011.
After rising significantly at the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, CPA business leaders’ optimism over the US economy has faded substantially in recent months, according to the latest American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) Business & Industry Economic Outlook Survey.
Envoys from 21 countries in Asia and on the Pacific Rim will meet September 8th and September 9th at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 20th economic leaders’ meeting in the far eastern Russian port city Vladivostok.
After about a decade of outpacing advanced economies, BRIC economies are seeing their growth slow. Deloitte’s most recent global economic outlook largely blames the euro-zone debt crisis but also on domestic challenges in some of the BRICs.
Companies in China and Japan are taking advantage of the euro zone’s woes and low US asset valuations to find acquisition bargains in developed markets.
European CFOs possess a far gloomier view of the next 12 months in terms of employment and other economic indicators than their US counterparts. Although US CFOs are keeping a close eye for residual threats from Europe’s woes, they are significantly more confident than European CFOs.
With the UK already in a double-dip recession and the euro zone expected to follow suit in the third quarter, financial markets are waiting to see whether Europe’s central banks will extend helping hands.
Despite worries about the euro-zone crisis and the economic slowdown in China, Australian CFOs remain bullish on economic growth and their companies’ hiring plans.
Brazil is a target for foreign investment, and the South American country figures to continue its rise thanks to a growing middle class and untapped natural resources. Foreign investment in Brazil has tripled since 2007, according to an Ernst & Young report. The nation’s infrastructure improvements in advance of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics make it an attractive bet for the future as well.
Manufacturing optimism was the lone bright spot in an otherwise grim report on UK business trends. Marketing products outside the euro zone could be an effective strategy for businesses in a dismal economy.
Global business travel spending is expected to grow in 2012 and 2013, due in large part to a surge in emerging markets such as Brazil, China, India and Russia. Companies in developed nations, however, are reining in travel budgets as the euro-zone crisis continues.
The deepening debt crisis in the euro zone has lowered European consumer and business confidence in past months, increased unemployment and raised the risk of a region-wide recession. Updated figures due to be released in the week ahead will show how Europe is faring.
Russia will take a momentous step August 22nd by joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO membership for the world’s ninth-largest economy comes with binding trade rules that are expected to alter Russia’s business landscape and lead to a permanent normalisation of trade relations between the US and Russia, former Cold War archenemies.
With the US economy still relatively sluggish, mid-size US companies are increasingly looking for opportunities to boost revenue overseas, a KPMG survey shows. Canada and Europe top their list of preferred locations, followed by China, Mexico and India.
Rising domestic demand will help reverse the slowdown in rapid-growth countries, an Ernst & Young projection suggests. To tap this emerging demand, companies will have to pay attention to the different challenges and opportunities shaping up in specific national and regional markets.
Industrial production in the euro zone and the European Union increased in May, raising hopes after back-to-back decreases in March and April that Europe would avert an economic contraction in the second quarter.
Consumer credit data due out in the week ahead could shed light on the economic picture in the US, where a slowing rate of growth is playing a key role in the approaching US presidential election.
