 Hi, my name is Ricardo and I'm the Senior Content Manager at CMC Markets. This year I've had the opportunity to interview many experts from around the world to unravel the secrets of trading, and shed light on what's next for the global economy. Here is our 2024 Outlook. Surprisingly in February, many were predicting that the US was about to tumble into a recession. That is thanks to the Federal Reserve's 11 interest rate hike since early 2022. But things have taken quite the turn about from earlier this year. So far, the economy has continued to plow ahead, and inflation is retreating faster than some economists expected. In the latest FOMC meeting, the Fed were cautiously optimistic, with Chair Jerome Powell saying he was pleased with the progress in the battle against inflation and the Fed's goal of keeping full employment. Now, although JP Morgan Research sees only a modest risk that the global economy slides into a recession in the near term, they are forecasting an end to the global expansion by mid-2025. With inflation cooling, and hiring remaining strong, economists are now venturing that something other than a recession may be around the corner, a so-called soft-landing.