Two Brookings Institution scholars in collaboration with the Financial Times have developed a new index that aims to offer a more nimble and transparent view of the global economy.
Eswar Prasad and Karim Foda, the two Brookings fellows behind the new TIGER index, endeavored to create a tool that can get a read on the economy without the opacity of forecasts published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). TIGER stands for Tracking Indexes for Global Economic Recovery.
The recently released forecasts from those organizations do not differ in their conclusions from TIGER that the world economy exhibits both some positive signs and much fragility. But TIGER endeavors to offer a clearer view through “consistent and comparable data” on real economic activity, financial market indicators and confidence.
In contrast to the density of the 250-page IMF forecast, for example, TIGER offers a single interactive page that a reader can mouse over to track growth in the 20 advanced and emerging countries the index tracks. A separate link takes you to detailed charts of the global economy, while clicking on an individual country on the interactive map will show the same data for that country alone. A nifty feature allows readers to look at a specific economic indicator—say, business and consumer confidence—across the countries tracked by TIGER. The webpage also includes a link to a concise, single-page commentary.