Five Key Takeaways at the 2014 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

This past week, the World Economic Forum (WEF) hosted its 44th Annual Meeting 2014 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. Every year, the WEF brings together the leaders of the world to reflect on the past year and discuss the significant global issues to focus on for the year. The list of attendees are considered the world’s most influential leaders including government officials, economists, top corporate executives, actors and activists, among other prominent figures.

This year the theme of the event was The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics, and Business. As the 44th WEF annual meeting comes to a close, attendees return to their respected countries to begin targeting and improving on major issues of focus including inequality and the impact of technology. On the agenda was the emphasis of five key datasets that represent these issues. The first is income inequality among rich and poor as South Africa, Brazil, and Chile are struggling the most with wide gaps between the two groups. The second is the slowing or falling of GDP growth with China, India, and Germany experiencing the most significant drops. This data especially raises concern since the BRIC countries are slowing down when they were projected to do the opposite. The third is high unemployment rates with South Africa, Spain and Greece among the highest. The fourth is government debt relative to a percentage of GDP and the concern of countries being unable to pay their deficits with Japan, Iceland, and Italy having the most debt. The final and fifth is climate change as a result of increasing CO2 emissions as the United States, Australia, and Canada released the most amounts of carbon emissions per capita.

Feel free to comment on what you think is the most crucial issue of the five to improve on!