Our regional outlook continues with a look at key markets in the Western hemisphere
-Etats-Unis :
The economy of the United States is the world's largest national economy. Its nominal GDP was estimated to be nearly $14.7 trillion in 2010, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. The US economy has been expanding since the end of the recession, which is officially considered to have ended in June 2009. The recovery has been fragile, however, with many mixed signals that have led to uncertainty in the consumer and business markets.
The announcement in July 2011 from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis that from late 2007 through the end of June 2009, the US economy contracted 5.1 %, was an upward revision from the previous figure of 4.1 %. This signaled that the recession was even worse than had been thought, and put into perspective the modest nature of the recovery. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis reports third quarter 2011 GDP growth of 2.5 % over the same quarter the prior year, with the annual growth rate measured at 1.6 %.
- Brazil :
The eyes of the world have turned to Brazil during the last years. Its outstanding economic growth, supported on solid macroeconomic fundamentals that result in an improving market performance and the leadership in all the regional economic rankings (FDI, industrial production, infrastructure development), has positioned Brazil, a country accounting for 47 % of the overall area of South America, and with the 5th highest population in the world (191.5 million people), as the one of the « stars » of the selected BRIC group.
- Les Caraïbes :
Economies in the Caribbean in 2010 experienced a better thanexpected economic recovery. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the region expanded by 2.9 % in 2010, after contracting by 1.3 % in 2009. Although this was after a 6.5 % increase in 2007, economic growth is expected to slightly continue recovering by 3.1 % in 2011 and 3.4 % in 2012. Predicted total tourism and travel contribution to GDP for the Caribbean is the highest in the world at 14.2 % at the end of 2011, while the Caribbean is rated as the number 1 region out of 12 regions measuring the relevance of tourism to its national economy.