2014 Global Business and Global Economy Outlook

Now that 2013 is wrapping up people are interested in predictions for 2014. Two important predictions to look at are the global economy and global business. These two factors usually go hand in hand; if the global economy is looking brighter it may be due to the fact that global business is increasing. Since a large plummet in 2011, global business and the global economy have slowly been increasing and there is more confidence on what the future holds.

The Conference Board, a global independent business membership and research association, has some findings on the global economic outlook for 2014. Their analysis found that developed economies have a brighter future awaiting them in 2014. The growth is expected to be around 1.7% versus the 1% in 2013, the two largest contributors to this projection are the United States and the Eurozone. Emerging economies do not have as aggressive of a growth rate expected; however, they are expected to grow even if at a lower rate than that of 2013. Countries such as China, whose growth rate in 2013 reached 7.5%, will slow down to only a predicted 7% in 2014. Meanwhile economies in India, Latin America, and Asia are expected to have increased growth rates.

A possible catalyst to these growing predictions is that right now, executives are very optimistic on the outlook of global business in 2014, provided by the Economist/FT survey. Throughout 2013 global business confidence continuously crept up the scale, in the latest quarter of the year, confidence levels spiked dramatically leading up to 2014. When divided into regions, executives all over the world have the same optimistic expectations of global business in 2014. They survey is also divided into industries; showing the breakdown of global business confidence by industries around the world. Out of the six industries listed, agriculture has that greatest sureness of growth in 2014.

Based from these predictions and analyses, it is a good indicator that 2014 has potential to be a great budding year for global business and the economies of the world.  What have your experiences shown you about these predictions for 2014? Do you think the growth of the world’s economies will be as great as anticipated? What about global business, are executives in the right being so hopeful in the coming year? Check out the globalEDGE Business Review to stay up to date on cutting-edge global business knowledge.