Wages have been cut or eliminated for nearly 11 million workers. Strong performers this year will be Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. Nervousness about emerging markets may rattle the economies of Eastern Europe, particularly with Russia's recent financial turmoil. Officials want to tap the spending power of rural India to revitalize the economy. Finding the money may be hard.
Investors are skittish over heightened tension with Pakistan.
A good monsoon will maintain stable grain and vegetable prices. Major European lenders have granted a three-year moratorium. Full recovery may be five years away. The sliding yen is making exports less competitive and is complicating efforts to pay off massive foreign debt. Export growth declined in May and June, after strong increases earlier in the year.