Towards a synchronized world recovery in 2014?

As is customary at the end of each year, the time has come to look back over the past year. The buoyant optimism we expressed for the U.S. economy at the start of last year showed itself to be well founded, even though it took until the second half of the year for the upturn to be felt. It was mainly the advanced economies that headed the pack in 2013, led by the United States, Canada and Japan. On the stock markets, the S&P 500 delivered an exceptional performance, and 2013 will go down as one of the top 10 years in the last century.