World to shrink, IMF chief says

Bloomberg

The slump in global trade and commodity prices will hurt poor countries, increasing the threat of political conflict and even war, Strauss-Kahn said in a speech in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania yesterday.

"The IMF expects global growth to slow below zero this year, the worst performance in most of our lifetimes," Strauss-Kahn said. "Continuing deleveraging by world financial institutions, combined with the collapse in consumer and business confidence is depressing domestic demand across the world." He called the crisis a ’great recession.’

The IMF had forecast in January that the global economy would expand 0.5 percent this year. The World Bank said in a March 8 report that the international economy was likely to shrink for the first time since World War II.