Paul Hodges, chairman of advisory firm International eChem, has warned of imminent global recession and increased currency volatility on the back of protectionism-driven trade wars.
In its pH Report for November/December 2016, the firm, which acts as a commercial adviser to the global chemical industry and its investment community, said warnings signs from the chemical industry are pointing global recession in 2017. The firm looked at a key measure, the global chemical capacity utilisation percentage (CU%), which it said correlates closely to global GDP and can be "a more reliable economic indicator than consistently overoptimistic IMF forecasts". Capital Group's Carlyle: Is the US due a recession? This measure has dropped to its lowest level since 2009 this y...
To continue reading this article...
Join Investment Week for free
Signup and gain exclusive members-only insights - all free of charge!
- Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
- Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
- Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
- Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
- Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes
