United States

After two years of spastic growth, the United States economy finally has shown signs of a more sustainable recovery. The speed of that recovery has been the focus of markets worldwide. The U.S. was already in recession before the events of September 11th 2001. The first quarter of 2002 bounce revived hopes that the economy would continue to grow at the unsustainable pace of the late 1990s. These hopes were disappointed. Growth picked up in the first quarter of 2003 despite a crescendo of war jitters leading up to the Iraqi military confrontation. And the economy made further gains in the second and third quarters. Despite protestations to the contrary, the United States remains the global engine of growth.