Across the world, researchers and business analysts are closely watching the People’s Republic of China (PRC), especially its recent economic slowdown. The Asia and Pacific region is extremely anxious about the PRC’s slowdown, but the rest of the world has a definite reason to worry about...

We compare business cycle fluctuations in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Our main results are as follows: (i) African economies stand out by their macroeconomic volatility, which is is reflected in the volatility of output and other macro variables; (ii)...

The economic situation in the euro area continues to be weak. In the course of 2003, real GDP has only stagnated. Several factors prevented the expected recovery to materialize. Last year’s collapse of stock prices dampened activity, so did the high oil price. In addition, the uncertainty in...