CHAPTER II. THE WORLD ECONOMY

Our last forecast, which was published in August, was moderately optimistic about prospects for the world economy, and especially for the United States. Since the summer the Yen has risen strongly, the US has begun to look like it is facing a recession, and it is now clear that the united Germany will face a very large Government budget deficit after monetary and political union. Meanwhile prospects for war in the Gulf remain high, and although EC farm ministers have managed to agree amongst themselves about cuts in agricultural subsidies it is not clear that these cuts are large enough either to prevent the GATT round stalling or stop the US erecting trade barriers in retaliation. As a result of all these factors our forecast is hedged around with rather more uncertainties than usual. Table 1 sets out our short-term forecast. We assume that oil prices will peak at $35 pb in the last quarter of 1990, and will then fall to $28 pb by the end of 1991.