The world economy – it is essentially all over the place.

Stephen Bartrop managing director of Sydney investment house Lime Street Capital kicked off the final day’s proceedings with a quick snapshot of the world economies.

Opening his address Bartop gave a quick synopsis of what is happening around the globe.

“China, we know it’s slowing – by how much and the real estate bubble risks they are certainly there,” he said.

“India – its GDP growth rate is now higher than China, but obviously India’s GDP is lower than China’s but it will come through and it is going to go to provide support in the longer term.

“The US – we have that subdued growth. There is a recovery happening. When perceptions start to emerge that it is real and the US dollar starts strengthening that certainly has implications for commodity prices and resource stocks.

“Europe – As we know is a mixture of strong economies such as Germany and the not so strong that are debt ridden that create some uncertainty and need to be addressed.

“Japan – we are seeing some recovery after the earthquake and tsunami but for how long that will continue remains to be seen.”

Bartrop paid particular attention to China saying that he latest mantra around its economy is all about the growth being expected to slow.

Some might say that this is all part of a natural development, and of course it all is, but it does seem to have implications.

“The major resource houses are still bullish on commodities,” Bartrop said.

“As GDP per capita increases in China and other emerging economies, the idea is that the intensity of use goes up for certain metals so it advances additional demand.”

Bartrop indicated that BHP Billiton suggest the need for global production of around 1.7 million tonnes of copper will be needed in order to meet the consumption expectations over the next 10-15 years and 1.5 million tonnes of thermal coal production.

“Some of things that you want to consider are – for example – is the average personal consumption evidenced in some western world economies directly applicable to India and China. Maybe they’re not,” he proposed.

“Do consumption trends actually change over time? Of course they do.”

There is, of course a high degree of subjectivity in terms of whether China is really going to follow the same sort of trends western economies have been historically following since the 1960s.

Looking at the USA’s copper intensity in the 1960s one would have to ask whether the average Chinese will have the same level of copper intensity as the US did.

Technology issues back in the 1960s were a lot greater than those faced by consumers today. The amount of steel in cars and the amount of different commodities used in televisions.

Steel consumption at this time US peaked in the United States.

The question to be considered today is whether China going to need to achieve those same levels today.