World economy in one chart

I’ve waited a long time for this. Checking each week. Now it’s back. My favourite chart.

I like it because it summarises the state of the world in a single line. The line shows overall global economic growth.

It was steady at +4% in the run up to 2007. Then it fell to -3% in mid 2008, recovering remarkably quickly to +4% again by mid-2009. Ever since, however, it has slipped progressively to just +2% by the end of 2012.

Here it is, with acknowledgement to The Economist magazine on 30th March 2013.