Focus: At your marks | The Economist

EACH month The Economist asks leading banks and financial institutions for their latest economics forecast across 14 rich-world economies. Our latest poll has forecasts for GDP growth, inflation (measured by consumer prices) and the current-account balance in 2012 (official data has not yet been released) and 2013. 2012 proved to be a dismal year for much of the rich world, not least for the 17 countries that use the euro. But according to our poll, euro-area countries will fair little better in 2013. Meanwhile the resource-rich countries of Australia and Canada are expected to perform well. The opinions of our pollsters vary quite significantly however, which indicates that a lot of uncertainty remains.