Global economy to shrink by 3% in 2009

Global economy to shrink by 3% in 2009
The Economic Times, June 12, 2009, Page 19

WASHINGTON: The global economy is set to contract by close to 3% this year, worse than the previous estimates for a 1.75% decline, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Thursday. In a statement ahead of the Group of Eight finance ministers meeting in Italy at the weekend, Zoellick said poor countries were the hardest hit by the global crisis. "Although growth is expected to revive during the course of 2010, the pace of the recovery is uncertain and the poor in many developing countries will continue to be buffeted by the aftershocks," Zoellick said. He said most developing country economies will contract this year and face increasingly bleak prospects unless the slump in their exports, remittances, and foreign direct investment is reversed by the end of 2010.