In The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) latest global outlook video, Agathe Demarais, Nicholas Fitzroy and Alessandro Cugnasca discuss the outlook for the euro zone and top risks for the global economy in 2021.

Industrial policy—the targeted intervention of the state in particular sectors—fell out of vogue in Western economies in the 1980s. However, it has become an area of growing interest in recent years, and the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this trend.

The year 2020 was a particularly difficult one for economic and political forecasting. Throughout the year we had to try to predict the course of the coronavirus (Covid‑19) pandemic in order to generate our forecasts.

On December 14th the US death toll from the coronavirus (Covid‑19) topped 300,000—about 19% of the worldwide total. This was less than three months after the US passed the 200,000 fatality mark.

On December 16th the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC, the top economic-planning body) released a revised national market-access negative list that states which sectors are prohibited or restricted to private investors, both Chinese and foreign.

Managing risk in an increasingly bifurcated world in the midst and aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to dominate the thoughts of risk managers.

The EIU nowcast for the US economy for Q4 2020 weakened to 1.67% (quarter-on-quarter) as of last week, compared with 1.99% during the week ending 18th December.

2021 is set to be a game-changing year across Asia. As the global fight against Covid-19 endures, China will be looking to restore its reputation on the international stage by the global distribution of a vaccine.

As Europe continues to combat the coronavirus pandemic, there are other key events and trends that organisations should be keeping a close eye on this year.

In The Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest global outlook video, Agathe Demarais, Emily Mansfield and Yue Su discuss our latest forecasts for China and the euro zone.