JIM O'NEILL: This Often Forgotten Country Is The Most Important Growth Driver In The World
With risks from Europe far from resolved, oil prices sitting at very high levels, and China's hot economy cooling off, everyone remains concerned about the pace of global economic growth.
Jim O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, was on Bloomberg TV this morning discussing the issue.
"What would be the global growth driver?" asked Bloomberg's David Tweed. "Would it be China?"
O'Neill, the economist who coined the acronym BRICs and spends much time discussing growth countries, offered a surprising answer.
Here's his full response:
"The forgotten one. I think the U.S. is going to continue to surprise for the next couple of courses. There's a couple of big structural things. The U.S. has got the same aspects of the de-levering problem in other places but there's two big structural positives linked to the view I have on oil.
The shale gas thing is a big story and I think it's helping quite a lot of industry think a lot more positively about the U.S. than has been the case possibly in a generation. People point at DOW chemical and have actually publicly stated this and you see evidence of this partly why job growth is picking up, it's not for more normal reasons it's a bit of a new phenomenon for the U.S.
And then in addition, I think the housing market is turning in the U.S.. I think that the U.S. has got some legs at least for the next couple of quarters. Big picture there's all sorts of issues but I think the U.S. might continue to positively surprise."
Watch the entire interview at Bloomberg TV:
SEE ALSO: Goldman's Jim O'Neill Presents His 11 Predictions For 2012 >
More From Business Insider
