The global economy is on course for a "soft landing" rather than a crash, but Europe's stagnant performance continues to disappoint, a leading think-tank said today.
According to a survey conducted by Germany's Ifo economic institute, the global economic climate will deteriorate over the next six months before recovery sets in.
The economic climate indicator fell to 97.5 in the second quarter from 101.1 in the first quarter and 103.8 in the fourth quarter of last year.
This marks the fifth quarter in succession that the indicator has fallen, but it remains above its 1990-2004 average of 94.
A regional breakdown shows that the strongest drop of the climate indicator is again in Western Europe, where it has now clearly fallen below its long-term average.
In North America the climate indicator weakened only slightly and conditions have improved in Asia for the first time in almost a year.
The indicator is based on a survey of 1,118 corporate and academic economists in 91 countries.