nmoa-prosperitysites.com

In the last couple of weeks there has been increasingly positive news emerging about the world economy, ranging from stock market growth to the economies of key countries exiting their recessions. But is this a sign of a real recovery in progress or merely a false dawn?

To look at this it is important to consider the facts surrounding these stories. First off France, Germany and now Hong Kong have announced that their economies have grown over the last quarter, breaking their year-long run of negative growth and contributing to a more positive world market. However, this news is misleading. This is especially the case with France and Germany where although their own economies seem to be recovering, the wider Eurozone economy is still suffering, having posted a 0.1% drop in the overall economy of the Euro nations. Hong Kong seems to be a better picture as it follows Singapore in recovering from the recession, and the stock market there has recovered by 80% over prices in March.

This isn’t all that is shrouded in uncertainty though – a second round of home repossessions and loan defaults are expected in the coming months as banks and building societies still struggle to reduce the risk present in their portfolios.

The US economy has shown falling consumer spending, one of the biggest signs being a nearly 30% drop in sales in the video game industry compared to the same time last year. This is the equivalent of nearly a £300m difference between July 2009 and July 2008. Consumer spending is one of the ways the major financial institutions hope to combat the ongoing recession, and these numbers have hardly provided comfort to those in the affected industries, nor to the wider population waiting for things to get better.

So is it a false dawn? In some ways, yes – there is still much of the bigger picture to be revealed and no-one can predict until then what will really happen. However, there are still positive signs and so it isn’t all gloomy. As usual, watch this space!