The advanced economies are leading the charge. The broad-based, geographical spread of the current economic expansion is perhaps the strongest basis for its durability. This reflects both a cyclical upturn as well as a structural uptrend, as products ranging from smartphones to automobiles and home electronics become increasingly chip-intensive.Semiconductor exports surged by 20% in 2017.The global electronics sector is on a strong upswing. The industry trends underlying the pick-up in trade are encouraging. This has arrested a worrying trend since 2011, with global trade growing slower than global GDP.Growth in global trade has almost doubled to 4% in 2017, outpacing world GDP growth.Global fixed investments have rebounded by almost 6% in 2017, after contracting in the previous two years.Investment expenditure, which had been largely missing from the GDP growth numbers since the global financial crisis, is coming back.

The IMF expects growth in 2018 to be even better than 2017.

Most of the world’s major economies are expected to continue strengthening over the course of this year.

This is the strongest pace of expansion since the rebound from the global financial crisis in 2010.Īll indications are that 2018 will be another good year.

World GDP is estimated to have grown by 3.8%, significantly higher than the 3.2% registered in 2016.

And also thank UBS for the invitation to speak at this conference.Ģ017 has been a good year for the global economy. Mr Edmund Koh, UBS Head of Wealth Management Asia-Pacific, View video recording of the Speech Highlights here.

View video recording of the Fireside Chat here.

Goldilocks economy roadblocks