Most International Economic Outlooks Improve For 2010

While the Blue Chip Economic Indicators’ economists cut the U.S. forecasts, the economic outlooks for many countries in Europe and Asia improved, especially in Europe.

A much stronger than anticipated rise in real gross domestic product in the second quarter in several Eurozone countries pushed the forecast for overall Eurozone GDP growth this year to 1.4% from the 1.1% forecast in last month’s survey. The current-year forecast for GDP growth jumped 0.7 point in Germany to 2.6%, as German exports rose strongly in the first half of the year. The United Kingdom, France and The Netherlands saw their GDP forecasts rise 0.1 point each.

In Asia, September Blue Chip real GDP forecasts jumped to 7.1% for Taiwan, up from 6.4% last month. Forecasts also rose for India, South Korea, Hong Kong and Australia. The forecasts for real GDP in China fell 0.1 point to 10%, while that for Japan was down 0.2 point to 2.9%.