But it is not just history that suggests there could be trouble – and plenty of it – ahead in 2019. It hasn’t helped that 2018 marked the closest the world has come to a full-scale trade war since the 1930s. If Trump thinks China has not done enough, the trade war will be back on. China’s economy – while still posting growth rates far higher than in the west – is expanding much less rapidly than it once was. A period of above-trend economic growth engineered by the European Central Bank has run its course.

Source: The Guardian December 30, 2018 11:01 UTC