The year ahead is likely to be a year of muddle-through, with middling performance by most economies, and little by way of a growth breakout
On hindsight, the year 2023 turned out, from an economic perspective, to be rather different from what many observers had anticipated at the beginning of the year. Standing at the precipice of the year to unfold, most thought the worse of what was to come; after all, financial markets had endured a tremendous beating the year prior, and indications were that the United States—then and now still the world’s largest economy—would slide ingloriously into recession.