Let me turn now to some remarks about general economic trends, beginning with the external environment. The Global Environment We have been living through some remarkable developments in the world economy over the past decade. Growth performance has improved, with global GDP growth averaging 3.8 per cent since 1996, compared with 3.4 per cent for the preceding two decades.
That doesn't sound like a big difference but it is: almost half a percentage point extra growth on average, every year, is definitely worth having. What's more, the variability of growth has declined, with the standard deviation of annual growth falling from about 1.1 per cent to 0.9 per cent.