Economic security

Here Are The Countries On The Brink Of Recession Going Into 2020

Topline: Amid a global slowdown in economic growth that has seen central banks lower interest rates near zero or below in an effort to provide stimulus, here’s a look at which of the major economies are on high recession alert.

• Hong Kong, following five months of citizen protests that have battered the city’s economy, has entered into a “technical recession,” with industries like tourism and retail especially hard hit from the ongoing turmoil.
• The U.K., with its ongoing uncertainty over leaving the European Union (and still no end in sight), has watched its economy recently shrink for the first time since 2012, and a no-deal Brexit could well slide it into a recession.
• Germany, the EU’s biggest economy, is set to slide into a recession thanks to a continued decline in its manufacturing sector as well as lackluster global auto sales.
• Italy, the EU’s fourth-largest economy, was in a technical recession for the second half of 2018 and has faced continued economic woes from weak productivity, high unemployment, huge debt and political turmoil.
• China’s economy has continued to slow amid the trade war, too, although not yet in a recession: The IMF forecast only 5.8% growth for the world’s second-largest economy in 2020, down from 6.6% in 2018 and 6.1% forecast in 2019.

Other highly stressed economies around the world include Turkey, Argentina, Iran, Mexico and Brazil, among others.