June 2009

Executive Summary Global Economy: Is the Deepest Recession in Decades Ending? The heady days of 2004-2007, when global GDP growth averaged about five percent per annum, seem like a distant memory now. Growth in most countries slowed in the first half of 2008 due in part to monetary tightening, the unprecedented rise in energy prices and dislocations in credit markets. Global economic activity then went into absolute freefall in the fourth quarter of 2008 as credit markets froze up in the wake