15/12/2014: BlackRock Institute Survey: North America & Western Europe, December 2014

BlackRock Investment Institute released the latest Economic Cycle Survey results for North America and Western Europe:

"This month’s North America and Western Europe Economic Cycle Survey presented a positive outlook on global growth, with a net of 52% of 84 economists expecting the world economy will get stronger over the next year, compared to net 47% figure in last month’s report." Back in October, the proportion was 43% and in September it was 55%. The consensus of economists project mid-cycle expansion over the next 6 months for the global economy - same as in October and November.

"At the 12 month horizon, the positive theme continued with the consensus expecting all economies spanned by the survey to strengthen or stay the same except Finland, Sweden and Norway." Norway featured as an exception in October report and November. Back in October and November reports, expected deviation from stronger trend was also reported for Belgium.

"Eurozone is described to be in an expansionary phase of the cycle and expected to remain so over the next 2 quarters. Within the bloc, most respondents described Finland and Italy to be in a recessionary state, with the even split between contraction or recession for Greece, France and Portugal. Over the next 6 months, the consensus shifts toward expansion for both Finland and Italy." These results were broadly consistent with october and November reports.

"Over the Atlantic, the consensus view is firmly that North America as a whole is in mid-cycle expansion and is to remain so over the next 6 months." Again, this was in line with October and November reports.

 Note: Red dot denotes Austria, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland.

For comparative purpose: October survey mapping 6 months out:

Previous report was covered here: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2014/10/6102014-blackrock-institute-survey-n.html

Note: these views reflect opinions of survey respondents, not that of the BlackRock Investment Institute. Also note: cover of countries is relatively uneven, with some countries being assessed by a relatively small number of experts.