Economic Megatrends | Megatrends Watch Institute

Economic Megatrends

Economic Growth

The global economy has grown twenty times over the last two centuries. Today, the world economy will grow around 3 percent annually in 2019 and 2020, but waning support for multilateralism, escalating trade disputes, increasing debt and rising climate risks are clouding prospects. By 2050, the world economy is expected to quadruple from its current level.

Third Supercycle

Despite the last global economic crisis, the world is in an economic super-cycle —a period of high economic growth— which started in 2000 and is expected to last at least two more decades. If the world is, indeed, entering in a super-cycle it would be only the third time ever since the Industrial Revolution. The first super-cycle occurred during the four decades before World War I. The second took place in the three decades following WWII.

Multipolar World

The E7 emerging economies —China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey— will lead this super-cycle. In fact, China's economy is expected to surpass that of America by the year 2016. Today, the G7 developed economies —US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Canada— account for 57% the world's economic output, but the latest projections reveal that the E7 economies will overtake the G7 economies before 2020.

Megatrends 2050

Grand Supercycle

Economic Growth