Interest rates, oil prices, China spread fear in the air, could derail global growth
The sense of panic has spread from Wall Street to the Swiss mountains.
Interest rates. Oil prices. Market turmoil in China. Business leaders attending the World Economic Forum in Davos are worried about a slew of problem areas that could derail global growth.
“Everybody is worried about growth at the global level,” Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told CNNMoney.
Markets around the world are deep in the red this year, and oil prices are hovering near their lowest level in over a decade.
The realization that authorities in China and elsewhere might not be able to stop the slide is making investors even more nervous.
“What’s driving this is that the central banks are not coming to the rescue … there is no room for this,” said Ken Rogoff, an economist and professor at Harvard. “People are very nervous about the long term … ‘short-termism’ dominates.”
Carlo Messina, CEO of the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo, said markets were due for a correction. “Over the last two years, the market increased in a significant way, probably over performing the real condition of the real economy,” he said.
