• The global economy is facing headwinds in 2020

    08/12/2019

    ​​Al-Iqtisadiah from Riyadh​

    During 2019, the world witnessed faltering unprepared economic growth in the face of trade tension, the growth of the digital sector and climate change, challenges that threaten the continued blowing of headwinds in 2020, which threatens to fuel protest and demand movements.​

    According to "French", the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects that global growth in the coming year will not exceed 2.9 percent, as in 2019, the lowest level recorded since the financial crisis in 2009.

    Laurence Boone, head of the Department of Economics in the organization, said that "We are at an alarming stage," The International Monetary Fund, was more optimistic, as predicted in his recent "Global Economic Prospects" growth of 3.4 percent in 2020, though the Jetta Juppinat responsible economy the financial institution has warned that the recovery "remains fragile."

    The diplomatic consensus that free trade fell with the arrival of US President Donald Trump to the White House, as he entered into a commercial as well as technological confrontation with China, which negatively affects global growth.​

    And "Brexit" will be, as expected, an additional test of the pluralistic approach, and the generous policies adopted by the central banks after the crisis led to the generalization of the phenomenon of "negative" interest rates in some countries, which limits the cost-effectiveness of banks and increased the size of private debt.​

    ​However, American financial expert Steve Eisman was conclusive, as he stressed that "there will be no generalized crisis."​

    The investor, who is famous for predicting the collapse of the American financial system a decade ago, believes that the economy may continue to record slow growth or enter "a typical contraction with an economic slowdown and a number of individuals losing money, and this amount will be painful enough."​

    ​Ludovic Sopran, chief economist at the insurance giant Allianz, predicted a "cleanser for global growth" and said that "the generalized shock will not happen in the financial sector, but rather from outside it, such as a major shock resulting from the imposition of regulations on personal data or linked to the climate."​

    This "shock" may come with the election of a democratic president who applies a more stringent tax policy with great wealth and directly attacks the large size of the major Internet companies and tightens green and climate-friendly organizations.

    Income sharing, digitization, and climate pose three challenges that will dominate the global economy beyond 2020.​
     Ingo Kobler, a representative of the staff of the German "Mali" processing company cars said that: "We are not afraid on how to overcome periodic crisis, we know what we must do," at the time of the company to cancel jobs, especially because of the decline in diesel consumption.
    He believed that "the biggest issue is the transformation, digitization, and mobility with electric power. We fear losing many jobs" in the face of the influx of Chinese car batteries.​
    ​And if prosperous Germany has so far feared for the future, other countries are experiencing waves of social anger, such as Lebanon, Chile, and Colombia, as well as France with the movement of "yellow vests".
    In a world registered with weak economic growth, and last year there were 26 billionaires who together owned money equal to that of the poorest half of the planet, and the issue of wealth distribution will be raised with more urgency, including in developing countries.
    "Even when people seem to enjoy basic material prosperity, they may experience the same level of misery and distress as the poorest," warned Esther Duflo, development expert, shortly after the announcement of her winning the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics​




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