Economist Intelligence Unit

Posts Tagged ‘economist intelligence unit’

The quality of death: Grim reapings

July 15th, 2010 | No Comments

An attempt to rank end-of-life care in different countries

CUSTOMER-SATISFACTION surveys are commonly used to improve the service in hotels and shops. Alas, they are unsuitable for rating the quality of death. So the Lien Foundation, a charity, commissioned the Economist Intelligence Unit, our sister company, to devise a ranking of end-of-life care. The report, published on July 14th, rates 40 mostly rich countries by how well they care for the dying.

Britain tops the table. For all the health-care system’s faults, British doctors tend to be honest about prognoses. The mortally ill get plentiful pain killers. A well-established hospice movement cares for people near death, although only 4% of deaths occur in them. For similar reasons, Australia and New Zealand rank highly too. …

Quality of death

July 14th, 2010 | No Comments

A ranking of care for the dying by country

CUSTOMER-satisfaction surveys are, alas, unsuitable for rating the quality of death. So the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister group to The Economist, has devised a ranking of end-of-life care, published on Wednesday July 14th. It rates 40 mostly rich countries by how well they care for the dying. Britain tops the table. For all the health care system’s faults, British doctors tend to be honest about prognoses, the mortally ill get plentiful pain killers and a well-established hospice movement cares for people near death. Countries such as Denmark and Finland rank lower because they concentrate more on preventing death than on helping people die without suffering pain, discomfort and distress.

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Trop cher?

March 10th, 2010 | No Comments

Living costs in big cities

PARIS is the most expensive city to live in according to the latest survey from Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company to The Economist. The survey assesses the cost of living by comparing housing, food, clothing, transport and utility bills and the like in 132 cities around the world. Tokyo comes second, up from sixth place a year ago. The fall in Russia’s currency against the dollar has made Moscow cheaper than it once was.

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It’s a PC world

December 29th, 2009 | No Comments

Global computer ownership will continue to rise in 2010

NORTH AMERICA will have the most personal computers (PCs) per person in 2010, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s forecasts. With nearly one per person, PC ownership in America and Canada far exceeds that in the rest of the world. Globally, PC penetration will continue to rise closer to one computer for every three people. Western Europeans have nearly 70 PCs per 100 people. But less than a fifth of people in Asia or Australasia are forecast to own a PC in 2010. The gap might narrow as China increases its information technology (IT) spending next year by 13.3% to $80.2 billion. Global IT spending fell in 2009, but is forecast to be back on track in 2010. Aided by demand for sleeker netbooks and laptops, PC sales will increase by 8%.

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Singaporeâ€™s rich optimistic on property prices, survey finds

December 3rd, 2009 | No Comments

Singapore’s rich are among the most optimistic of global investors on real estate, expecting the value of their property holdings to rise in the next two years, according to a survey.

Fifty-three percent of Singapore investors forecast prices to increase, more than the 49% of respondents globally, the survey by Barclays Wealth and the Economist Intelligence Unit found. The survey of 2,000 people with investable assets of more than US$800,000 ($1.1 million) was taken in August and September.

Overtaking

October 28th, 2009 | No Comments

Emerging economies get more foreign direct investment than developed ones

FOREIGN direct investment inflows will barely reach $1 trillion in 2009, a decline of more than half since 2007, predicts the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company to The Economist. And for the first time emerging economies will attract more than half of the global total. Flows to poorer economies, especially Asian ones, are proving more resilient than flows to rich economies which are suffering the worst recession in several decades.

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Improving prospects

August 13th, 2009 | No Comments

South Korea’s economy rebounded strongly in the second quarter

South Korea recorded real GDP growth of 2.3% quarter on quarter in the second quarter of 2009—a stronger performance than the Economist Intelligence Unit expected. Monthly indicators also suggest that the rate of economic contraction is slowing. As a result, we have revised up our real GDP forecast for 2009 to a relatively small fall of 1.8% (compared to our previous forecast of a 4.4% decline). We forecast real GDP growth of 2% in 2010.

Although South Korea’s economic prospects are improving, the financial and economic environment abroad remains extremely challenging and will have an adverse impact on the performance of all components of South Korean GDP. We expect private consumption to contract by 1.5% in 2009, before recording modest growth of 0.8% in 2010. This weakness reflects a number of factors. The unemployment rate is expected to rise, and the weakness of the labour market will put downward pressure on wages. In addition, economic uncertainty will undermine consumer confidence. …

Uncertainty in the year ahead

July 28th, 2009 | No Comments

China’s economy should grow by 8% this year and next, but significant risks remain

The Economist Intelligence Unit has revised its economic forecasts for China in 2009-10, and now believes that the country will achieve 8% GDP growth in both years. With real GDP growth having reached 7.9% year on year in the second quarter of 2009, China already appears on course to achieve the government’s aim of 8% average growth this year. However, growth in 2010 remains subject to significant upside and downside risks. The outlook is obscured by the dominant role that government policy is set to play next year, and by the high degree of uncertainty with regard to the outlook for the global economy.

Our forecast for next year reflects an assumption that the government will tighten credit and fiscal policy moderately. Such an approach would be likely to have negative side-effects. Asset-price inflation will be stimulated by a credit and fiscal policy stance that will be kept loose to offset the effects of the weak global economy on the export sector. Several local governments in China will face growing fiscal strains that may require the central government to bail them out. China’s fiscal deficit in 2009-10 will in any case be larger than at any point since the start of the reform era in 1979. Coupled with this, the banking sector will face a tough challenge. If economic growth is not to slow sharply in 2010, credit will have to continue to grow strongly. Yet coming after the extraordinary rise in lending seen in 2009, a further massive expansion of credit would increase the threat of loans turning bad and of a future banking-sector crisis. Such a crisis would require another recapitalisation effort by the central government, putting additional strain on China’s public finances. …

Decline slows

July 16th, 2009 | No Comments

Taiwan’s deep recession may be easing

Several economic indicators point to a slight easing of Taiwan’s deep economic recession during the second quarter of 2009, following a 10.2% year-on-year fall in real GDP in the first quarter—the most dramatic single-quarter contraction since records began in 1961. However, Taiwan’s heavily trade-dependent economy will continue to suffer deeply in the next couple of years. The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that Taiwan’s real GDP will contract by 6.5% in 2009. The poor economic and financial environment abroad will continue to undermine Taiwan’s growth prospects in 2010, when the economy is forecast to expand by just 0.6%.

The composite index of leading economic indicators produced by the Council for Economic Planning and Development, which forecasts conditions over the next three to six months, reinforces our view that Taiwan’s economy, although showing signs of stabilising, remains weak. In May the index strengthened slightly for the fourth successive month, rising by 3.3% from April. Six of the seven components of the index—export orders, average monthly overtime in industry and services, book-to-bill ratios in the semiconductor machinery industry, monetary aggregate M1b (currency in circulation plus current-account and passbook deposits, and plus passbook savings deposits), stock prices and producers’ inventory—showed positive movement. However, the barometer, which uses five colours to measure the health of the economy, continued to flash blue, indicating recession, for the ninth month in a row. …