A Paris-based international group is forecasting that the US economic expansion, celebrating its seventh birthday this month, should remain on track over the next two years with growth strengthening next year.
The 34-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Thursday said that US GDP growth should slow this year to 1.8 percent, but accelerate slightly to 2.2 percent next year.
The OECD puts the risks of a US recession as a “low-probability prospect,” but did point to a number of long-term challenges facing the nation.
The OECD recommended well-designed investments in innovation, infrastructure and improving job skills as a way to combat a prolonged period of weak growth in worker productivity.
The increased spending on investments would attack the slowdown in productivity and also help alleviate other problems such as rising income inequality, the report said.
“Seven years after the financial crisis, the United States is making a comeback,” the OECD said. “The US economic recovery, while modest by historical standards, has been one of the strongest in the OECD.”
The 2007-2009 Great Recession, which included the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, ended in June 2009. The US economy has expanded since that time, but at modest annual rates that have averaged about 2.1 percent over the past seven years.
That is the weakest economic growth since the post-World War II period and the OECD attributed the slow growth to a variety of factors, including the severity of the recession. While growth has been slow, the recovery has now pushed output above pre-recession levels.
The OECD said the risks of a new recession over the next couple of years were minimal, but it did cite a number of low-probability risks that could, if they occurred, jeopardize the expansion.
Those threats ranged from a financial market meltdown to political gridlock that could raise the risks of a default on the government’s debt. Heightened geopolitical tensions or terrorist threats could also undermine consumer confidence.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last