But – and this is no small “but” – the global recovery has been disappointing. With few exceptions, growth in the advanced economies has underperformed expectations of growth as economies exited from recession.
Year after year we have had to explain from mid-year  1  Forecasts are from International Monetary Fund (2014), World Economic Outlook: Recovery Strengthens, Remains Uneven (Washington: IMF, April); whenever possible, they are updated using International Monetary Fund (2014), World Economic Outlook Update: An Uneven Global Recovery Continues (Washington: IMF, July).