After two years of sharp deceleration, in 2003 the rate of growth rebounded to almost 6 per cent. In the emerging Asian countries GDP growth was 7.5 per cent. In Latin America, the modest results achieved by Brazil and Mexico contrasted with the sharp recovery in Argentina. The rate of growth in the euro area was no more than 0.5 per cent.
In 2003 the world economy is estimated to have grown by 3.7 per cent. For 2004 the International Monetary Fund forecasts GDP growth of 4.6 per cent in the United States, 2.2 per cent in Japan, 6 per cent in the emerging economies and 3.6 per cent in the main Latin American countries.