IMF World Economic Outlook: 

Uneven Growth

A number of complex forces are shaping the outlook. These include medium- and long-term trends, global shocks, and many country- or region-specific factors: 

• In emerging markets, negative growth surprises for the past four years have led to diminished expectations regarding medium-term growth prospects. 

• In advanced economies, prospects for potential output are clouded by aging populations, weak investment, and lackluster total factor productivity growth. Expectations of lower potential growth weaken investment today. 

• Several advanced economies and some emerging markets are still dealing with crisis legacies, including persistent negative output gaps and high private or public debt or both. 

• Inflation and inflation expectations in most advanced economies are below target and are in some cases still declining—a particular concern for countries with crisis legacies of high debt and low growth, and little or no room to ease monetary policy. 

• Long-term bond yields have declined further and are at record lows in many advanced economies. To the extent that this decline reflects lower real interest rates, as opposed to lower inflation expectations, it supports the recovery. 

• Lower oil prices—which reflect to a significant extent supply factors—provide a boost to growth globally and in many oil importers but will weigh on activity in oil exporters. 

• Exchange rates across major currencies have changed substantially in recent months, reflecting variations in country growth rates, monetary policies, and the lower price of oil. By redistributing demand toward countries with more difficult macroeconomic conditions and less policy space, these changes could be beneficial to the global outlook. The result would be less risk of more severe distress and its possible spillover effects in these economies.

more here: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2015/01/pdf/text.pdf

(click on the chart to enlarge)

• In a nutshell, there are still plenty of "risks" throughout the global economy, although broadly there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic that growth will continue, albeit at a  relatively subdued pace.

• Portfolio construction needs to heed to the risk factors and avoid overpriced assets (where large amounts of capital have been parked) for the time being.
• As economic confidence returns (lending policies will become less restrictive), capital will move out of conventional bond and equity assets (safety) to more growth oriented assets (risk).