gE Blog Series: globalEDGE Birthday Series Part 1 - Introduction

This week we are celebrating the birthday of the globalEDGE blog! With its inception on September 12, 2008, the blog is now turning five years old and we are starting our celebration with a blog post about what has transpired in emerging markets over the past five years.

Over the five year lifetime of our globalEDGE International Business Blog, a lot has changed in the global business world, especially with emerging market economies. Hong Kong was the number one emerging market in 2008 and Singapore has now taken over that spot, according to our emerging market MPI data. The same data also shows significant jumps by both Israel and Turkey. It is interesting to take a look back and see the progress these countries have made as people would not have considered them great vehicles of growth. Five years ago the buzz about the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations could not have been higher. Many expected them to be the engine of economic growth globally. Today they are growing much slower than predicted and people are wondering what the next five years will hold for these nations.

Another exceedingly interesting development is that 2014 is predicted to be the year when emerging markets will overtake developed countries in terms of GDP. Oh how things have changed. It is hard to say what we will be saying about emerging markets five years from now but if the past is any indicator it is anyone’s guess.

In celebration of the globalEDGE blog birthday we would like to leave you with the first ever post from 2008 and hopefully you will reminisce along with us this week as we cover the international business trends over the past five years! Stay tuned this week for more posts as we continue the celebration of our birthday with a blog series that takes a look at the many changes in the business world over the past five years.