2012年是世界经济增长整体放缓的一年。在发达经济体中，美国和日本经济低速增长，欧元区则陷入衰退。与此同时，发达经济体还面临失业率高企、债台高筑等严重经济和社会问题，传统货币政策功能几近穷尽，财政政策调整空间日益狭窄，“日本化征候”日趋明显。在新兴市场与发展中经济体中，由于受外需急剧下降以及国内经济调整的影响，一些国家放缓了经济增长步伐。伴随而来的是全球贸易增速明显放缓和争端日益频繁，大宗商品价格逐步走低，股市受非常规政策影响非自然上涨，全球治理和区域一体化有亮点但进展缓慢。2012年还是许多重要国家大选年，选举政治对经济的影响显著。展望2013年世界经济，美国“财政悬崖”、欧洲债务危机久拖不决、全球流动性过剩、贸易保护主义和地区安全等诸多因素值得关注，全球经济将继续中低速增长。
The world economy remains sluggish in 2012. While the United States and Japan contributed to slow economic growth, most other developed economies, especially the euro-zone, are more serious causes for concern. At the same time, they faced serious economic and social problems such as unemployment, high debt, and very little room for conventional monetary policy and fiscal policy. It becomes evident that the major developed economies will slide into Japanese-style stagnation. Due to a sharp decline of external demand and domestic economic adjustment, some big emerging markets and developing economies also experienced economic slow down. The situation was accompanied by slow global trade growth and frequent trade disputes, gradually decreased commodity prices, unnatural rise of the stock market caused by unconventional policies, and limited progress in global governance and regional integration. The year 2012 is also characterized by general election politics which had great impacts on the global economy. In 2013, the world economy will be influenced by the factors such as the US "fiscal cliff", the unsolved European sovereign debt crisis, excess liquidity, trade protectionism, regional security, and other uncertainties. Therefore, the moderate and slow growth of the global economy will become a new normal state.
