William Blair Economist Olga Bitel told the Investor Strategy News in Australia that she sees positive trends for global growth despite the global market selloff at the beginning of 2016.
Bitel highlighted that banking stocks have become highly correlated to the price of oil, so as the oil price tumbled, so did banking stocks. But she noted that nothing has fundamentally changed and that the recent selloff was not based on a worsening outlook for global growth.
“The [positive] trends are still with us,” Bitel told Investor Strategy News. “In the U.S., most of the deceleration is due to energy. Manufacturing is stable... Retail sales in Europe are the highest they've been in a decade... Because of the massive changes in Japan it's hard to see any short-term trends there. But the developed markets are doing quite well.”
In the interview, she added that while developing markets economic activity is “hovering around contraction,” the trend has been up since the second half of last year. And she sees positive signs in China despite the ongoing growth slowdown.
“There are nuances with the GDP number,” Bitel said. “And growth is still double or triple the growth of developed markets.”
Read Olga Bitel’s Interview in Investor Strategy News
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