Did you know?

Here are some international economic gems of information from Kevin Lings- chief economist at Stanlib - who was speaking at the Momentum Wealth conference in the North West province, recently.

The USA
The US is still the biggest economy in the world, accounting for 30% of the world, and twice the size of the second -Japan, while India is relatively small at 1%.

Employment statistics in the USA do not include the number of people employed in their Army. The numbers have been dropping, although the education and healthcare sectors are the biggest growth sectors for employment, but this is not sustainable.

The consumer accounts for 70% of the USA economy.

The USA market is not expensive, and in fact quite cheap. Its now simply a valuation game, while corporate profits have been spectacular, although the markets are unconvinced of this.

Europe
Europe is becoming a lot more competitive, and the demographics will eventually favour the euro area, when compared to the USA. The broadness of the export story is key here. Confidence levels are higher than the USA.

Japan is doing reasonably well and personal consumption is on the increase.

China
There is no science about forecasting GDP growth in China as its really just a guess. Anyone that claims that they accurately forecast this figure is lying. The GDP growth numbers are not believable and forget about the decimal place. Consider that when one adds the GDP figures from the various regions that add up to more than the countrys GDP.

China is the worlds biggest saver- with consumers saving 30% of GDP. Household spending is only 40% of GDP.

Inflation targeting
There are currently 33 countries in the world that have inflation targeting, and only four countries have cut rates in the past 12 months, including Mexico and Poland.