World Economic Outlook, April 2006, Globalization and Inflation - International Monetary Fund

The world economy is in the midst of an extraordinary purple patch, with what looks like a third year of significantly above-trend growth. Growth is also becoming more balanced with Japan picking up strongly, and the euro area showing advance signs of steadier growth. Perhaps, the best reflection of the times is that sub-Saharan Africa is headed for its best growth performance in over 30 years. As past Outlooks have documented, an important reason for this good performance has been greater flows of goods, services, and capital across the world, a phenomenon known colloquially as globalization. The chapters in this Outlook all try to make sense of this phenomenon.