Room for IC industry expansion, analyst says

The world economy is “ok”
The global financial system in 2008 experienced its worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Major financial institutions went bust.

In 2009, the worldwide GDP was minus 1.9 percent, and the world is still dealing with the consequences of that minus 1.9-percent GDP, said McClean.


“I never thought I would see in my career a minus GDP, and we are still seeing the effects of it,” commented McClean. “The IC industry has never encountered a global economy that bad. People put off buying a new PC or a new cell phone. We need to realize how these things cycle. The global economy cycles and the IC market cycles. Every single country in the world was afraid."

In 2009 and 2010, McClean noted that the downturn would have been steeper without the stimulus. “In 2010, we had a 4.3-percent growth rate but without the stimulus we would have had 2.1 percent,” he said.

It is going to be a few years to get back to a normal situation. Right now, McClean noted, the world economy is “ok”.