At the 10th Annual Towers Watson Australian Ideas Exchange, Tim Hodgson, head of Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Group, identified six mega trends that will have favourable and adverse effects for the global economy in the long term:
* economic imbalance (rebalancing and leverage, demand for safety)
* adverse demography (such as, ageing populations in the Western world and population growth in emerging markets)
* degradation of natural capital (climate, scarcity)
* innovation and technology (new technology, globalisation)
* business shake-up (labour, capital)
* the increasing role of government.
These trends should be considered in all investment decisions.