Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Growing threat from instability
Economy | Risk
April 25, 2024 – Geopolitical instability and conflicts are the top threats to growth, according to global executives surveyed on economic conditions. Senior partner and McKinsey Global Institute chair Sven Smit and coauthors find that uneasiness about domestic political conflicts and transitions of political leadership, now the second- and third-most-cited risks, respectively, have overtaken concerns about inflation. There was some variation in the results, depending on geographies: transitions of political leadership were the top concern in North America and were cited nearly twice as often as in a December survey. Geopolitical instability was the leading concern in Europe.
To read the survey, see “Economic conditions outlook, March 2024,” March 29, 2024.
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Visual form
Multi-panel bubble chart.
Layout / body structure
The page is laid out as a matrix with risk categories down the left side and office locations across the top. The reading order is across each row from office to office and then down through the list of risk types.
What is being compared
It compares how respondents in different office locations rank political and economic risks to growth, including geopolitical instability, domestic political conflicts, leadership transitions, inflation, debt, China-related slowdown, and weak demand.
Measurement system
The values are percentages of respondents naming each issue as a top risk. Bubble size encodes the share, and the number inside each bubble prints the exact value.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Each risk-by-region cell contains one blue circle, with larger circles and brighter emphasis where concern is stronger. The matrix allows quick scanning by row to see where a specific risk is hottest and by column to see the overall profile for a given office location.
Main takeaway from the visual
The chart shows that instability concerns have become broadly distributed but not evenly so, with North America standing out for heightened concern about domestic political conflict and leadership transitions while China-related slowdown is strongest in Greater China.
Key standout values or extremes
Domestic political conflicts reaches 58 percent in North America, and leadership transitions is also notably elevated there at 50 percent. Slowdown in China’s economic activity spikes to 45 percent in Greater China, while geopolitical instability stays high across several offices, including 58 percent in the overall reading.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.