Global Equity and International Fund Strategies 2013 Year End Review and Outlook

Year End Review

It has been five years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers almost sank the global economy and 2013 arguably marked the year when the financial crisis came to an end. Conventional as well as unconventional methods were used by central banks, especially in the U.S. and Japan to aid economic expansion. As has been the case for the past three years, there have been obstacles in the way of the economic recovery, but the U.S. has managed to keep growing slowly, despite the first partial government shutdown in seventeen years that led to a loss of 0.6% of output for the quarter. The annual U.S. budget deficit has declined dramatically from 10% of GDP in the wake of the financial crisis to the current level of less than 4% with continuous improvement expected in the coming years.

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