Chapter 2. The World Economy

Extract

Fuller information confirms the estimates which we made six months ago and repeated in February that the total real national output of the industrial countries increased in 1967 by about 3 per cent and the value of world trade by 5 per cent. But, though the errors were not big in relation to the aggregate for the year, it has now become clear that our assessment of trends in the later months was not entirely accurate. The resumption of fairly rapid economic growth in North America of which we were already aware was in fact accompanied to a significantly greater extent than we previously realised by a parallel acceleration in continental Western Europe.