The annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson are attending today, is well timed for New Zealand's political and economic leaders. It comes straight after their summer break when they have had time to ponder the sort of long-term trends and challenges facing all advanced economies, including their own, and before they are caught up daily politics for another year.
Northern hemisphere leaders are not so lucky, which is why Britain's Theresa May, France's Emmanuel Macron and Canada's Justin Trudeau, among others, are not at Davos today. All have more pressing problems at home. Donald Trump, who is not there either, has the Unites States Federal Government partly shut down over the Democrats' refusal to fund his Mexican border wall. But Trump would probably not have attended anyway.
Three days ago Trump cancelled the planned US delegation's trip as part of the shutdown. It hardly matters, Davos is a conference of internationalism, the antithesis of America First. In fact one of the main problems Davos undoubtedly is discussing is the risk to all modern economies and world trade from the defensive, protective nationalism that has emerged in recent years.
The "global elite", as media describe attendees, are meeting in the Swiss ski resort with the general economic outlook somewhat gloomy. Bloomberg reported business leaders and economists heading to the summit are less optimistic than they were a year ago when Europe was coming out of its long post-crisis slump. They expect lower international growth forecasts and data from China showing its 2018 expansion was the slowest for three decades.
Among the companies sending executives to the forum, BlackRock has just announced it is cutting jobs, Societe Generale expects its latest quarterly trading revenue to be down 20 per cent, JP Morgan missed its profit estimates last week and fears the US economy will stop growing if the government shutdown continues.
