Global GDP growth prospects

THE world economy will grow by 2.9% in 2015, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), our sister company. In 2014 world GDP was estimated to have increased by 2.5%. Global growth will be boosted by lower oil prices: a 10% fall is thought to add 0.2 percentage points to world GDP. America will be the best-performing rich-world economy in 2015, with growth forecast at 3.3%. But the world economy will be held back by weakness in the euro area and Japan, and by slower growth in emerging markets. China will see expansion slow to 7% in 2015.

Excluding Japan, Asia and Australasia will be the world’s fastest-growing region in 2015. Papua New Guinea is predicted to be the zippiest economy of all, expanding by almost 15%, nearly twice as fast as any other country. At the other end of the spectrum, Russia’s economy will suffer from the dual blows of falling oil revenues and Western sanctions; and Macau's GDP will shrink thanks to a slump in gambling revenues. But the worst-performing country of 2015 will be Sierra Leone, due to the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.