Rlam's Coffey says economic decline behind us

Rlam's Jane Coffey believes most global economies have now seen their worst quarter of economic decline, expecting positive growth in the second half of the year.

The group's head of equities expects markets to remain volatile however. "Unemployment will still be rising and the question of how high the savings ratio will go is not one that will be answered definitively this decade," she says. "Therefore equity markets will continue to be volatile as sentiment ebbs and flows on the shape of the economic recovery and how it will feed into the stock market." Coffey believes the western consumer will face increasing headwinds in 2010. "In 2009 disposable income growth has primarily been generated from falling mortgage rates and lower oil pric...