The context in which our forecast is set includes the following features. The World economy is expected to continue growing strongly in 2006 and 2007, with growth rates of per cent and per cent forecast respectively. All the major economies will contribute to this performance. The United States, although slowing, is forecast to grow by a still respectable 3 per cent in both 2006 and 2007, Japan is forecast to grow by per cent in 2006 and per cent in 2007 while the corresponding figures for China are per.
