Mind you, it is not all good news; his global growth surprise index (whether economic data beat expectations) has turned negative.There might be a problem, Mr Cates admits, on deflation.Excess capacity in most of the world's large economies, including China..., could further undermine globally traded goods prices in the period ahead.
In spite of all the forecasting tools at our disposal, even in the age of instant global communication, surprises continue to abound, and occur completely outside of our control.
After the surprise global success of The Lego Movie ($468m [£300m] worldwide), a raft of spin-offs have inevitably surfaced but it's the DC-fuelled superhero tale that's predictably gaining the most buzz.
The global picture will surprise doomsayers.
Connor said the speed with which the Paris agreement had come into force had caught the global community by surprise, including Australia.
Ghost Protocol's surprise global success put lots of gas in the tank for a fifth bite at the Tom Cruise spy series.
Fortunately for her, it was as part of Mamma Mia!, the big-screen adaptation of the Abba musical, which went on to become a surprise global smash.
Canet, a 40-year-old French screen heartthrob-turned-successful director, had several offers of work in the US after his 2006 French film Tell No One — a taut adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel — became a surprise global hit.
Simon Cowell has challenged music's most successful backroom songwriters to compete for space on the next album by One Direction, the boy band who have become a surprise global phenomenon.
That Wal-Mart Stores spent $25 million on lobbying in the United States over the past four years on such issues as whether India would open its own retail markets to the global behemoth should surprise no one, much less shut down India's parliament, as it did Tuesday.
