An economy the size of Britain or Brazil will disappear this year - and it is all down to the US dollar's rebound. The biggest nominal terms contraction of global gross domestic product since the 2008-09 financial crisis, US$2.4 trillion will vanish even though the real terms rate of world growth is likely to accelerate this year against last. It is only the sixth time since 1980 that this will have happened and it is on a scale seen just twice before. The reason is that while the number of goods and services produced will increase at a faster rate, most are going to be produced in countries with a currency that has weakened against the dollar. "This change will have far-reaching implications across markets, principally for commodity prices," say economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, not least "some downside risks for Asia".
