It's not easy to keep in touch with what's happening in economies round the world - some that seemed to be doing well a few years ago now aren't, and things can change quickly.
So here's a useful and clear chart from Australian investment bank Macquarie, showing the state of pretty much every major world economy is in at the moment:
Macquarie Research
Anything above the straight black line indicates that an economy is growing, and the higher they are, the stronger it is.
Macquarie's regional focus pays particular attention to its nearby Asian economies, several of which it thinks are around or falling past their peak growth stages. Here's how everyone else does:
- Latin America is past its peak and on a downward trend.
- Australia and Canada's mineral-rich economies are in a growth slowdown, but not expected to go into full-blown recessions.
- China is bottoming out after a long run of very fast growth.
- India on the other hand is past the worst of it and heading towards stronger growth.
- The periphery of Europe is also past its worst, but yet to register a decent expansion.
- Japan is coming out of a recession.
- The core of Europe is also climbing, a little higher than the periphery.
- The
UK is heading upwards too, above the rest of Europe. - The US has the best upswing of the group, having left recession far behind.
It's worth noting that very few places are now actually in recession. The eurozone's periphery and Japan are still below the black line, but both are currently seeing an upswing that should take them into low growth territory this year.