1989 was another highly satisfactory year for the industrialised countries, with real gross national product growing by an average of around 31/2%. Performance differed from one country to another, however, with the USA beginning to lag behind. Is this the harbinger of a general slowdown in growth?

Following the prolonged upswing in the world economy during the eighties, the subsequent downturn is proving to be more persistent than expected. It looks as if the USA is now at last on the road to recovery but Japan and Western Europe are still having a tangible dampening effect at the turn of...

After a three-year slowdown in the world economy, unemployment in the industrial countries is again almost as high as at the end of the recession in the early eighties. Any improvement will be dependent on a distinct resurgence of economic activity. With the recovery in the USA gaining greater...

The upswing in the world economy has lost momentum surprisingly fast. A slowdown in growth in North America had been expected, but the budding hopes in Japan and Western Europe for a continued recovery in utilisation of capacity and employment were disappointed. Are there grounds for such hopes...

After the price of oil began falling sharply during the first few months of 1986 the prospects for a more pronounced and long-lasting economic upswing in the industrialised countries were generally regarded as having improved. The increase in demand and production in 1986, however, was more...

In 1984 the world economy witnessed the kind of high growth rate it had last seen eight years ago. In the industrialised countries real GNP increased by almost 5%. The most pronounced increase was in the USA, although the initial thrust clearly tailed off during the course of the year. Against...