March 31, 2009—The crisis is hurting developing countries and G-20 must restore confidence, says Bank President Zoellick, as the new Bank forecast sees sharp slowdown in growth, putting the poor at risk.
Speaking today at a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker in London ahead of this week’s G20 Summit, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick said there would be a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the developing world this year, putting more poor people at risk, and the Group of 20 must not shrink from combining ideas and actions to restore confidence in the world economy.
“This is not a moment for complacency. It is not a day for expressing false confidence that all has been done that can be done. It is not a time for narrow nationalist or even regional responses. The one certitude we can draw from events over the past year is our inability to predict what is to come, and how it may trigger other unexpected events,” Zoellick said.
GDP growth in the developing world will slow to a projected 2.1 percent in 2009 from 5.8 percent in 2008, according to World Bank estimates released today. The Bank has more than halved its November 2008 projection of 4.4 percent growth in developing countries in 2009, reflecting the rapid deterioration of global financial and economic conditions.
The Global Economic Prospects update also notes that global growth is expected to contract by 1.7 percent this year. This would be the first decline in world output since World War II. GDP is projected to decline by 3 percent in OECD countries and by 2 percent in other high-income economies.
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