Could infrastructure be the panacea for global growth?

Global Economy Watch, May 2016  

Eight years after the financial crisis, many large economies continue to have sizeable negative output gaps, which provide estimates for how close a country is to operating at potential levels of output. Of the G7, Italy is furthest adrift with France and Japan still running behind the GDP-weighted average for the group. Only Germany and the UK are near to closing the gap.

In contrast, the US grew by an anaemic rate of 0.1% q-on-q, which was slower than expected. The UK also saw growth slow to a slightly below trend rate of 0.4% in the first quarter.