All countries, at about the turn of the year, started to revise down their expectations relatively quickly for the year ahead. The reductions in forecasts for growth were not drastic, but they applied to most countries, and hence to the world economy in aggregate. The reassessment was centred on the United States, with Japan and other parts of Asia prominent.
It cannot be denied that the fall in share prices in the United States, which was largely matched by falls in European and Asian exchanges, played a significant role in this reassessment, just as their earlier buoyancy had held up economic activity.