... the group of non-OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] nations.

With world output growth projected at 3.3% in 2013 and 3.7% in 2014, the forecast again points to a global recovery that is hesitant, below par, and uneven. 

NIESR summarises its projections thus:

• The world economy will grow by 3.3% this year and by 3.7% 2014, remaining below trend.
   
• In the developed world, divergence continues; the USA will grow just over 2% in each year, while the Euro Area zone remains in recession and will grow only about 1% in 2014.
   
• Unemployment remains very high in most countries, at depression era rates in some peripheral Euro Area countries.

This outlook reflects, especially in the advanced economies, weak demand resulting from several factors, especially continuing fiscal consolidation and deleveraging by private sectors, impaired credit intermediation in many cases, and significant policy uncertainties.

Of most concern is the continuing slump in the Euro Area, which is expected to remain in recession in 2013 and seems unlikely, on current policies, to experience better than weak growth next year.

In the USA, private sector demand has continued to be strengthened by a substantial improvement in the financial positions of banks and households, but this is partly offset by accelerated fiscal adjustment.

NIESR's growth projections for Japan have been raised to 2% per annum in 2013–14, taking into account the announcement of significant fiscal and monetary stimulus measures.

But the main drivers of global growth remain the developing and emerging market economies, especially in Asia; prospects seem good for a broad strengthening of growth in these economies this year and next, following the moderate slowdown experienced in 2012.

Read the original unabridged NIESR article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... financial markets before stock market falls.

According to the report's co-author, Helen Susannah Moat, a social scientist from University College London:  “Our results are consistent with the suggestion that Google Trends data not only reflects aspects of the current state of the economy, but may have also provided some insight into future [stock market] trends.”

Published in Scientific Report - a primary research journal from the publishers of Nature magazine - the report further suggests that Google Trends data and stock market data may reflect two subsequent stages in investors' decision-making process.

Postulates Ms Moat: “Trends to 'sell' on the financial market at lower prices may be preceded by periods of concern. During such periods of concern, people may tend to gather more information about the state of the market, ie, search on engines like Google". 

Read the full unabridged Scientific Reports article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... foreign direct investment.

This is forecast to reach record levels in the period through to 2015, the Bank predicts, reaching US$54bn (£35.3bn) annually by 2015.

The report said strong economic growth in Africa had significantly reduced the extent of poverty in the sub-continent over the past decade.

The Bank's provisional figures show that the proportion of Africans living on less than $1.25 a day fell from 58% to 48.5% between 1996 and 2010

World Bank economist, Punam Chuhan-Pole comments: "If properly harnessed to unleash their full potential, these trends hold the promise of more growth, much less poverty, and accelerating shared prosperity for African countries in the foreseeable future." 

However, resource-rich countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Gabon were singled out as making less progress in combating poverty than other African countries with fewer natural resources.

Read the original unabridged BBC article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... the health of the global economy, particularly in relation to the Eurozone debt crisis.

Despite which WARC expects global advertising spend (based on twelve major markets) to increase by +3.0% at current prices in 2013 and by +5.4% in 2014, according to its latest International Ad Forecast.

With the exceptions of Brazil and Japan, all featured markets have seen downgrades to their forecasts for 2013 compared with WARC's November 2012  report.

The Eurozone countries will all see flat or negative growth in advertising spemajor political or sportind for 2013.

Comments WARC's Data and Journals Director Suzy Young: "With few major political or sporting events this year, global advertising spend growth was always expected to be slower than in 2012. The Eurozone debt crisis also continues to depress growth both among member countries and abroad. To offset this, global adspend will be reliant on a solid performance from the US and strong growth from emerging markets."

Read the original unabridged WARC article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... "calling for a total ban."

He told the BBC in a message sent via anonymised email service Hushmail: "Rather we want people to actively set social and physical bounds around the use of technologies and not just fatalistically accept the direction technology is heading in."

Based in London, the STC campaign began on on 28 February, he said, and the group did not expect much to happen before the launch of Google Glass in 2014. 

However, the STC launch coincided with a Google campaign on Twitter aimed at persuading people to think about what they would do if they had a pair of the augmented reality spectacles.

The camera-equipped headset suspends a small screen in front of an owner and pipes information to that display. The camera and other functions are voice controlled.

Google's push, coupled with the announcement by the 5 Point Cafe in Seattle to pre-emptively ban users of the gadget, has generated a lot of debate and given the campaign a boost, said the campaign's mouthpiece.

Posters produced by the campaign warning people not to use Google Glass or other personal surveillance devices have been downloaded thousands of times, claims an STC representative.

Google Glass, however, is not the only threat that should concern campaigners.

It was reported today by Reuters that China's largest search engine, Baidu Inc is developing prototype digital eyewear similar to Google Glass. The initiative will leverage Baidu's strengths in image search and facial recognition.  

Read the original unabridged BBC article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... single big acquisition that "wouldn’t fit Bertelsmann’s risk profile”.

The company, which last year benefited from the best-selling book Fifty Shades of Grey, currently relies on Europe for 80% of its sales. Rabe, who took office at the beginning of 2012, is overhauling Bertelsmann’s portfolio with a push into music rights, education and emerging markets. 

Says Mr Rabe: “It is our clear objective to grow the company in the next couple of years. Assuming a little bit of tailwind from a recovery in Europe, we expect to grow to €17bn this year and €18bn in the next.”

Bertelsmann’s total global sales grew 4.5% to €16bn last year, Rabe added, although his forecast doesn’t include potential acquisitions.

Operating earnings before interest and taxes from continuing operations will remain at more than 10% of revenue in coming years even as the company invests in new digital products and reorganizes its legacy businesses such as printing.

Read the original unabridged Bloomberg.com article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

 ... the nation's performance was nevertheless among the strongest in the world. This year, GDP is forecast to grow between 8%-8.25%. 

China's population, unlike the Western and Asia-Pacific economies, is currently fixated on saving as opposed to spending.

Mr Zhu believes there are several things the central government could do to boost domestic consumption.

"Number one, you should give people more opportunities to work and then to earn more money, so they will be able to consume more," he said. "I think this is the most important thing and will be the driving force for China's growth strategy in the next few years."

He also suggested that China further open its service sector to allow more competition while crafting supportive tax and fiscal policies, particularly for small and medium-size enterprises. These measures, he said, would go a long way toward raising individual incomes.

The IMF official urged Beijing to increase spending on health, education, pensions and other social programs, which would help allay public concerns about the economy and encourage people to spend more.

The government, he said, should have a policy to discourage investment.

Interest rates on loans are too low, while necessities such as energy, transportation, water and electricity are extremely cheap, fueling excessive expansion of certain parts of the economy.

However, Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University in New York and a former China division chief at the IMF, suggested last month that it's wrong to think of Chinese GDP growth as continuing to be driven by exports and investment.

According to Mr Prasad: "China has made substantial progress on reducing its external imbalance, with the surpluses on both the current account and the trade balance falling sharply from their peaks in 2007," Prasad said at a hearing of Congress' US-China Economic and Security Review Commission."

He also listed the three major challenges for China:

• Implementing reforms to improve the quality and efficiency of growth
   
• Continuing to shift from capital-intensive production
   
• Creating jobs and helping more of the benefits of growth to reach Chinese households.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... promising small and delivering big.

If Sir Martin remains true to form, his gloomy prognostications for the world economy will show WPP triumphing over adversity despite unpropitious global economic conditions between now and 2020.

Sorrell warned that 2013 will be another demanding year, with slow or stagnant growth in western continental Europe (excluding the UK) likely to continue for some time. He added: "We may well only be half way through a lost decade, post-Lehman."

Given that half a decade has already elapsed since Lehman's collapse in 2008, Sir Martin's forecast of a "lost decade" veers toward the obvious.

On a more pragmatic note, the WPP supremo sees the USA's budget deficit as the "elephant in the room" and last-minute attempts in the US Congress to deal with the problem on New Year's Eve "only succeeded in kicking the can further down the road".

Never averse to florid similes, Sorrell also considers the US deficit as the most threatening of his five so-called "grey swans".

In plain English the reference relates to the "known unknowns" affecting the global economic outlook (the converse of "black swans", which take the market by surprise).

Sir Martin's grey swans also include the Eurozone crisis, turmoil in the Middle East and a slowdown in fast-growing economies such as China, Brazil and India.

He is also unhappy at Prime Minister David Cameron's decision to stage a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union, which Sorrell sees as adding "further uncertainty" to the UK economy.

Read the original unabridged Guardian article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... enabling objects to self-assemble.

Such technology could be used to install objects in hard-to-reach places such as underground water pipes, suggests Mr Tibbits who explained what the extra dimension involved.

It might, for example, herald the age of self-assembling furniture and other items. Even, eventually, buildings, say TED attendees.

Mr Tibbits, a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology self-assembly lab, told the BBC: "We're proposing that the fourth dimension is time and that over time static objects will transform and adapt."

The process uses a specialised 3D printer that can create multi-layered materials. It combines a strand of standard plastic with a layer made from a "smart" material that can absorb water.

The water acts as an energy source for the material to expand once it is printed.

"The rigid material becomes a structure and the other layer is the force that can start bending and twisting it," said Mr Tibbits.

"Essentially the printing is nothing new, it is about what happens after," he added. Tibbits also foresees that such a process could in future be used to build furniture, bikes, cars and even buildings.

"We are looking for applications and products that wouldn't be possible without these materials," he added.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading."

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... aging demographics, the long-term shift toward services, increasing energy prices, high levels of consumer debt and greater inequality among consumers in advanced economies.

The forecast, Succeeding in Low Growth Markets, is published by WPP-owned consultancy The Futures Company.

Among its many conclusions, the report asserts: “The broader effect of digital networks has been to expose national economies to much more competition than previously.”

This, concludes the report, has resulted in “suppressing middle income wages and removing swathes of middle-income jobs.”

All is not gloom however. Digital technology is credited with spurring innovation which, the report believes, could help workers shift to more productive sectors of the economy.

However, “it’s hard to see at the moment where those new jobs will come from.”

Perhaps the most counterintuitive [not to say 'contentious'] factor cited by the report is the rise of digital technology, which has “stripped value out of economies.”

The report estimates that digital networks have accounted for 60% to 80% of productivity gains in advanced economies since 1995.

Read the original unabridged MediaPost article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.