Counting the Cost

Economic outlook for 2015

In this special edition of Counting the Cost, we look at the biggest business stories to watch in 2015.

In this special edition of Counting the Cost, we look at the biggest business stories of 2015. What can we expect from the markets and the economy this year?

The eurozone is a crucial part of the global growth picture, but the one peg that has consistently failed to deliver. Berlin is still reluctant to start any kind of growth, it is determined to make eurozone members curb their deficit, only leaving the European Central Bank (ECB).

So does the eurozone do what Berlin wants, like cutting deficits and debts? Or does the European Central Bank face up to deflation and step in with a full-blown stimulus plan? Will the ECB step up and start prining money? 

Meanwhile what does China do?

It is managing its economic slowdown well, there has been no falling-off-the-cliff as such. But property prices are sliding, and debt is rising. Seven percent growth is still great by global standards but not what we have come to expect from the world’s factory.

And climate change. This is the story which never goes away, but what we may have in 2015 is something of a zenith.
The big climate change conference in Paris at the end of the year is what people seem to be building to. Can we finally get a pact to contain or even cut green house emissions?

Counting the Cost assembled an expert pannel to preview and analyse the year 2015: Paul Donovan, a global economist of the  international bank UB; Rajiv Biswas, the Asia-Pacific economist with IHS in Singapore; and Martina Larking, the head of the Global Agenda Council at the World Economic Forum.