If globalisation was meant to obviate liberal democracies’ instinct toward national competition, it seems the world’s headline writers didn’t get the memo. Every few months, whenever a major report on the economic health of nations is released, it’s all about the leaderboard.
Often, this results in a gloomy news day for Blighty. At the start of 2023, we had “UK faces worst and longest recession in G7, say economists”. While this had shifted a few months later to the fractionally better "revised data from ONS shows Britain is not worst G7 performer”, the year ended with a rotter from Reuters: “UK set to have weakest growth among G7 in 2024, IMF forecasts”.
Of course, in this particular contest, there’s usually only one winner. “US to grow at double the rate of G7 peers this year, says IMF,” the Financial Times website reminded us this week. It’s the kind of observation that explains why – in a self-fulfilling loop – investors’ capital so often flocks to the Land of the Free, whatever the sensitivities around pricing and valuations.