World economy: Climate indicator weakens slightly

In October 2004 the Ifo Institute conducted its 86th Ifo World Economic Survey (WES) among more than 1,100 economic experts of multinational enterprises and competent institutions in 90 countries. According to the results, the strong dynamics of world economic activity will weaken slightly. The expectations for the next six months again worsened somewhat while the judgements of the current situation continued to improve. This constellation is typical for the late stage of an economic upswing. In particular the only slight flattening of the economic expectations and the further improvement of the positive appraisals of the current economic position still speak for a positive development of world economic activity in the first half of 2005 in spite of the declining dynamics.