Doom and gloom in world trade? Think of the bright side, say speakers at Amundi forum

PARIS (June 29): Despite the uncertainty driven by US and China trade tensions that are scaring financial markets and threatening economic growth, there are reasons to cheer amid the pessimism.

Kishore Mahbubani, former Singapore diplomat and professor in the practice of policy at the National University of Singapore, says that the last three decades have been “incredible” years for the global community.

For one, global poverty has reduced drastically from 75% to 10%, he says. Secondly, the growing middle class population is expected to surge to 5.4 billion in 2030 from 1.8 billion in 2009. These should underpin global growth ahead.

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