Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2011

Are the advanced economies facing a lost decade?

July 2011

Oxford Economics

Abstract

Only two years into the recovery and incoming data indicates that the global economy has weakened anew, raising doubts about whether the expansion in the advanced economies is sustainable. We examine whether this disappointing economic data signifies that we are already heading into another downturn, or if we are merely experiencing a temporary softening of the global recovery. More generally, we ask whether the disappointingly sluggish pace of the recovery among the advanced economies signals that they may be facing a ‘lost decade’ resembling Japan’s experience in the 1990s.