WORLD ECONOMY
Linda Yueh, former Chief global business Correspondent of the bbC, is now fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London business School. Speakglobal caught her between a tutorial and a seminar.
LINda YUEH SpeakGlobal: What are you focusing on currently? Linda Yueh: I’m juggling a number of stimulating commitments from my various roles (academic, broadcaster, board director, author/editor, speaker), and enjoying seeing the publication of a new edition of my China’s Growth: The Making of an Economic Superpower. I’m also writing my next book on solving economic problems closer to home here in the UK and in Europe, and working on a bbC documentary on the build-up to the 2016 US presidential election. SpeakGlobal: Will the migration crisis have a global impact? Will unafected nations be at an advantage or disadvantage as a result? Linda Yueh: The migration crisis is likely to be centred on Europe, though some aspects of it will have an impact further aield, especially in the United States. No nation is likely to be unafected, though undoubtedly some nations in Europe will bear the brunt of the crisis. It’s an immediate social and economic challenge, but it can also ofer a longerterm opportunity, as migration can yield beneits for a host nation, which is what most economic studies conclude. SPEAKGLOBAL | ISSUE 6
SpeakGlobal: Is the China slowdown as catastrophic as some suggest, or is it just a balance after years of unusually high growth? Linda Yueh: China’s slowdown should be expected, as the nation approaches an upper middle income level of development. It’s not unusual for a poor nation to grow quickly as it catches up, and then for growth to slow. The challenge will be whether China can reform in order to achieve a more balanced set of growth drivers and manage the inancial system, which is burdened by debt. SpeakGlobal: If Brazil, Russia, India and China – the so-called BRIC – have had their time, where’s the spotlight going to turn next? Linda Yueh: I’ve always thought it was the IC rather than the bR economies which were exciting, that is, India and China, along with the fast-growing nations of Southeast Asia. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and development (OECd) and other analysts forecast that by 2030 two-thirds of the global middle class will be in Asia, which is a dramatic shift from today, when more than half are in the west.
Many commentators have either been baled by this phenomenon or found it diicult to explain in comprehensible terms. Linda yueh has neither problem.
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