The pendulum swings
By C.W. | LONDON
THE International Monetary Fund has just released its World Economic Outlook, a biannual health-check on the world economy. Americans will not be delighted with what they see. Back in January the IMF expected America to grow by 3.6% this year; now it is expecting 3.1% (see chart). These data continue a run of bad form for the world’s biggest economy, which we discuss in detail in this week’s issue. Problems are legion. Thanks to the strong dollar, exports are falling. That is eating into corporate profits, which fell by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2014 and were 6.4% lower than in the same quarter of 2013. Investment is not doing well either, as energy producers hold back in the hope of higher prices.
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