The mood in Washington appears to be less sombre than was the case in the previous meetings, as the three big high-risk, high impact concerns of last year – a possible Eurozone breakup, the US fiscal cliff and a possible hard landing in China – have been avoided or at least postponed for now.
However the low growth environment looks set to persist, and the World Economic Outlook of the IMF published earlier this week indicates that global growth is unlikely to be much better than was the case in 2012. Recent political and banking sector developments in Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and Italy illustrate just how fragile the recovery remains.