After solid and broad-based growth for three consecutive years the world economy decreased slightly in 2007 with anticipated GDP growth back to 2005 levels at 4.9 % and 3.3 % forecast for 2008 by the World Bank. Developing countries and economies in transition continued their strong economic growth with the previous years, i.e. 5.9 % for developing countries and 6.5 % for countries in transition.
This is reflected, among other things, in continued strong demand and higher prices for energy and primary commodities including food. Notwithstanding the strong performance by most developing countries they remain vulnerable to any slow down in major economies and to the volatility of international commodity and financial markets. The medium term perspective point to a slowing down of the world economy with smoothing upward trend in emerging economies.
These factors lead to a dramatic increase of the raw materials demand, which puts pressures on the developed economies and shift the investment opportunities from the developed markets toi the emerging ones (source: doitinvest.com).