Macroeconomic Environment

Global economic momentum strengthened in 2017. Rising political uncertainty and existing structural problems have not adversely affected the stronger economic recovery as yet. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects this upward trend to continue in the regions relevant to HHLA during the forecast period. The IMF’s experts believe that the German economy will maintain its robust upward trajectory with growth of 2.3 %. In the emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe, the pace of expansion picked up markedly in 2017. The IMF anticipates economic growth of 4.0 % in 2018. Due in part to the sanctions still imposed on the Russian Federation, its economic output is likely to be largely unchanged from the previous year with GDP growth of 1.7 %. The IMF has upgraded its outlook for the Chinese economy slightly and now expects growth of 6.6 %. Meanwhile, the IMF’s experts forecast a rise in global GDP of 3.9 % in 2018. Global trade volumes are expected to grow by 4.6 %.