In the United States, jobs figures, retail sales and business spending are all dropping. Economic growth is slowing in China and India. In Europe, a seemingly endless euro-zone crisis has steamrollered over Spain, making Greece's drama seem a sideshow. The Middle East has its own problems of political instability, which has had major consequences for the economies of countries such as Egypt and Syria.
These are the ingredients of a very bad year to come, and the past three and a half haven't been much of a joyride. The combination of crippling levels of debt and a global crisis in economic confidence, leaves the IMF predicting a 0.2 per cent contraction of the global economy.
There are, in short, many people who are listening to "Dr Doom", a moniker earned by the economist Nouriel Roubini for his predictions about the 2008 economic crisis. "Next year is the time when the can becomes too big to kick it down [the road] … then we have a global perfect storm," Dr Roubini warns.
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