What Does the Future Hold?

If you’re wondering about reality television, National Public Radio says it may be virtual reality goggles that let viewers feel as though they are part of a show or let them interact with shows. If you’re asking about astronomy, it could be finding a planet that’s ten times larger than earth orbiting our sun. Of course, if you’re curious about global economic growth, it’s almost as exciting – experts indicate we can expect relatively steady growth. 

The Economist asked a group of economists to predict GDP growth for 2015. GDP is “the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period.” For the most part, they predicted 2015 will be better for developed nations than 2014. 

“Only the economies of Britain and Japan are expected to expand at slower rates in 2015. But for those European countries that have suffered deep recessions, notably Italy and Spain, growth is likely to remain sluggish over the two year period.” 

The story in emerging countries is improving, too. According to Price Waterhouse Coopers, economic fundamentals (such as labour force growth and potential for capital investment and productivity improvement) in emerging countries look good over the longer term. 

The International Monetary Fund, which has more robust projections for growth than The Economist’s economists, expects to see improvement in emerging markets. Growth is projected to increase to 5.1 percent this year and 5.4 percent in 2015. Eastern Europe and Latin America aren’t expected to grow much faster than the United States in 2015. However, growth in developing Asia is expected to reach 6.8 percent. One exception to the rule is China where growth is forecast to slow from 7.5 percent in 2014 to 7.3 percent in 2015. Even for an economy with slowing growth, those are some pretty good numbers.