Can happen anywhere.

"Japan unexpectedly slipped into a recession at the end of last year, losing its title as the world's third-biggest economy to Germany and raising doubts about when the central bank would begin to exit its decade-long ultra-loose monetary policy." "Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) fell an annualised 0.4% in the October-December period after a 3.3% slump in the previous quarter, government data showed." Reuters. "Japan's consumers, used to years of flat prices, have been punished as the weak yen currency has driven up the cost of living, and everything from food to fuel." "Analysts and officials pointed to declining spending on dining out as one of the reasons for the drop in consumption." ET. "The BOJ (Bank of Japan) announced negative interest rates in January 2016 as an iteration in monetary experimentation." "Chronically low interest rates and huge monetary expansions failed to promote real economic growth in Japan. Quantitative easing (QE) did not achieve its stated objectives in the United States or the European Union (EU), nor have chronically low interest rates been able to revive Japan's once-thriving economy." Investopedia. "Europe's economy failed to expand at the end of 2023, dragging out the stagnation for more than a year amid high energy prices, costlier credit and downturn in former powerhouse Germany. Zero economic growth for the October-to-December period of last year follows a 0.1% contraction in the three months before that." AP. "In 1974, economist Julius Shishkin came up with a few rules of thumb to define a recession: The most popular was two consecutive quarters of declining GDP." "This definition of a recession became a common standard over the years." Forbes. Thus, a 0% growth in the last quarter, following a contraction in the previous one, means that the EU has avoided the recession label by a whisker. The European Central Bank (ECB) cut interest rate to --0.10% in June 2014, gradually decreased it to --0.50% from September 2019 to July 2022, when it was raised to 0%, and then gradually increased it to 4.0% in September 2023. ECB. The UK has not been so lucky. "People spending less, doctors' strikes and a fall in school attendance dragged the UK into recession at the end of last year, official figures show. The economy shrank by a larger than expected 0.3% between October and December, after it had already contracted between July and September." BBC. Only the US is going upwards. "In terms of GDP, it posted a 3.3% growth in the fourth quarter of 2023," "That put the US at 2.5% over the course of the year, outpacing all other advanced economies and on track to do so again in 2024." BBC. India's economy is expected to grow by 7% in 2023-24 and again in the next financial year. Mint. Should we dance with glee that we are beating western countries. Firstly, a 7% growth of $3 trillion is much less in absolute terms than a 3% growth of $24 trillion and, secondly, most of our exports go to these nations. Recession could be infectious.