(FORTUNE Magazine) – LIKE RECESSIONS, recoveries can be contagious. America's economic momentum is finally spreading to the rest of the developed world, with factories from Ottawa to Osaka beginning to buzz. These economies are not taking off at the stressful 7% growth rate seen in the U.S. during the last quarter of 1993, but at a more measured pace that promises to keep inflation under control. That's the take of economists at the WEFA Group in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, who supplied FORTUNE with the global forecasts presented on the following pages. Even Japan, the biggest economic laggard, is starting to pick up. After three years in recession and oodles of fiscal stimulus, the East's industrial powerhouse should show a 1.1% rate of growth in 1994, helped by improvements in consumption expenditures and housing starts. Europe will likely show a similar growth spurt in 1994, though it continues to face uncomfortably high unemployment. Elsewhere, China's expansion should slow a bit from the 13.5% rate in 1993 but still be in double digits. The big worry is that such overheating will lead to political unrest.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: WEFA GROUP CAPTION: INFLATION UNEMPLOYMENT BUDGET SURPLUS BUDGET DEFICIT INTEREST RATES REAL GDP GROWTH