The third quarter of the Demag Cranes AG financial year 2009/2010 (April to June 2010) saw the global economy continue to recover from the effects of the recession at an increasing pace. Goldman Sachs experts estimate that the world economy grew by 5.0 percent in the period under review compared with the same period of the previous year. This growth was once again driven by emerging markets, which grew by 7.8 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. Mature markets expanded by 3.0 percent in the same timeframe.

The most dynamic growth region in the period under review again proved to be Asia, though there were also signs of improvement in key industrialised economies such as the USA and Japan. Among emerging markets, the Chinese economy again displayed particulary strong growth. A jump in lending causes experts to see a risk of increasing numbers of distressed loans, however. The Chinese central bank has consequently begun to throttle back growth in lending. The resulting more restrictive bank lending policies are therefore likely to temper economic growth in the second half of the year. China should nonetheless continue to exert a stabilising influence on the world economy. For the USA, economists project 3.5 percent economic growth in April to June compared with the same period of the previous year. The American economy is thus growing steadily, but the current trend is less dynamic than the powerful upswings that followed past crises. The labour market situation in particular is improving only slowly. It is also hard for the Administration and the Federal Reserve to judge the risks posed by the debt crisis in various European countries.

¹ Sources: Dresdner Kleinwort, Commerzbank Research, “Konjunktur und Finanzmärkte June/July 2010”;
Goldman Sachs, “Global Economics Analyst, Third Quarter 2010”; VDMA, “Konjunkturbulletin August 2010”;
German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, “Schlaglichter der Wirtschaftspolitik” monthly report, July 2010.