World Bank president: 'One shock away from crisis'

[sianrose]

wonder if this could be leading somewhere?...

World Bank president: 'One shock away from crisis'

The president of the World Bank has warned that the world is "one shock away from a full-blown crisis".

Robert Zoellick cited rising food prices as the main threat to poor nations who risk "losing a generation".

He was speaking in Washington at the end of the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Meanwhile, G20 finance chiefs, who also met in Washington, pledged financial support to help new governments in the Middle East and North Africa.

Mr Zoellick said such support was vital.

"The crisis in the Middle East and North Africa underscores how we need to put the conclusions from our latest world development report into practice. The report highlighted the importance of citizen security, justice and jobs," he said.

He also called for the World Bank to act quickly to support reforms in the region.

"Waiting for the situation to stabilise will mean lost opportunities. In revolutionary moments the status quo is not a winning hand."

full article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13108166

'Arab Spring' holds IMF, World Bank, amid financial woes

WASHINGTON — Global finance chiefs sought ways to help Arab economies flourish amid pro-democracy revolts erupting across the region as the IMF and World Bank met in Washington Saturday.

While the Arab Spring that has seen dictators in Egypt and Tunisia fall since January has captivated the two key global institutions in their spring meetings, looming in the background were destabilizing "imbalances" in the world's most powerful economies.

International Monetary Fund and World Bank policy makers made support for Arab countries a key priority, highlighting the social-political impact of skyrocketing food prices and joblessness around the world and especially in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region.

We can together build a better future for these countries. And that's not only important for Egypt and Tunisia, it's important for the whole world because this example is an example that is going to have a lot of consequences," IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Friday.

"The upheaval in the MENA region is not only a reflection of discontent over jobs, low wages and poverty, but also represents a day of reckoning for trade and economic policy choices made ... over past decades," Supachai Panitchpakdi, the secretary general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, told the opening meetings said in a statement.

full article

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i_CIPM05zjKw4wTjJaX0jkMGUbgg?docId=CNG.d28e977733e212d40d816e1892692c61.4c1

[Dages]

They are warned

[jeremy]

"The upheaval in the MENA region is not only a reflection of discontent over jobs, low wages and poverty, but also represents a day of reckoning for trade and economic policy choices made ... over past decades," Supachai Panitchpakdi, the secretary general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, told the opening meetings said in a statement.

If only he knew