Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 02/2011

Five Surprises of the Great Recession

Uri Dadush, Vera Eidelman

November 2010

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Abstract

The Great Recession included five major surprises: (1) the severity of the global trade and output collapse, (2) the United States suffered a milder than expected recession, (3) Europe saw the onset of a severe sovereign debt crisis, (4) China grew at an extraordinary rate even though it's greatly dependent on exports, and (5) Latin America showed remarkable resilience.