Western economies poised to account for less than 50pc of world GDP

Western economies poised to account for less than 50pc of world GDP

Western world economies will account for less than 50pc of global gross domestic product (GDP) this year, six years earlier than expected, a think-tank has warned.

By Angela Monaghan
Last Updated: 9:18PM BST 01 Jun 2009

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) is forecasting that because of the downturn and China's economic resilience, the combined contribution from the US, Canada and Europe to world GDP will be 49.4pc in 2009, down from 52pc in 2008.

CEBR said prior to the financial crisis Western world GDP was not expected to fall below 50pc until 2015. The West's contribution to global GDP has been steadily falling since 2004, when it was about 60pc, but the recession has accelerated that process, CEBR said.

The recession has brought forward the time when the non-Western economies produce more than half of world GDP, for the first time since the middle of the 19th century. We had expected this to happen, but not quite so soon. The West will have to start to get to grips with the fact that we are no longer dominant and cannot expect to have things our own way," said Douglas McWilliams, CEBR's chief executive.

The think-tank predicts the West will account for just 45pc of the world economy by 2012, and expects global GDP to fall by 1.4pc this year, the first decline since 1946. The global economy will start to grow again in the second half of 2009 but will moderate in 2010 as governments embark on "fiscal retrenchment," according to the CEBR.

China will overtake Japan in 2009 to become the world's second largest economy in dollar terms, it said.

"One of the factors causing the shift in shares of world GDP is the fact that the Chinese economy has bounced back rapidly," said Jörg Radeke, economist at CEBR. "This will have knock on effects on oil and commodity prices and is one reason why we are forecasting a price of oil of $80 a barrel in 2012," he added.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/5424031/Western-economies-poised-to-account-for-less-than-50pc-of--world-GDP.html