This report written by David Wyss and Beth Ann Bovino was first published on 6 January, 2011. Copyright McGraw-Hill International (UK) Limited, 2011. All rights reserved.

S&P Equity Research sets out its thoughts for 2011, speculating on whether consumer spending and other behaviours will boost the world's biggest economy, also raising some risk down the line of an eventual uptick in interest rates. It expects real gross domestic product growth to be around 3 per cent this year.