IMF – Global Economy To Creep To 0.5% Growth In 2009 Worse Since World War 2!!!

The embattled world economy is crawling to a halt under the financial crisis and would grow by only 0.5 per cent this year slowest pace since World War II, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

“The world economy is facing a deep recession,” the IMF said in an update of November forecasts that shaved about 1.75 point off its prior global growth estimate.  The IMF said the advanced economies were now seen contracting by 2.0 per cent, a sharp downward revision from the negative 0.3 per cent estimate two months ago.

“Despite wide-ranging policy actions, financial strains remain acute, pulling down the real economy,” the 185-nation institution said, warning the outlook was highly uncertain.

The United States, the epicenter of the financial crisis, would endure a 1.6 per cent contraction, the IMF said, slashing its prior estimate of 0.9 per cent.
Nonetheless, the world’s biggest economy would weather the financial storm better than most other major advanced economies. Japan’s economy would shrink by 2.6 per cent in 2009 instead of the mild prior estimate of 0.2 per cent. The world’s second-largest economy would be in recession for the second consecutive year, following a 0.3 per cent contraction in 2008. The 27-member eurozone economy would hit a wall, suffering a 2.0 per cent contraction after growing 1.0 per cent in 2008. The previous 2009 estimate was for a 0.5 per cent contraction.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, would shrink by 2.5 per cent this year after a 1.3 per cent expansion in 2008, according to IMF figures published six days ago. Britain would suffer the most, with gross domestic product (GDP) activity contracting 2.8 per cent, after 0.7 per cent growth last year. Of the major advanced economies, Canada would be the least affected, hit with a 1.2 per cent contraction.

Developing countries were forecast to have relatively weak growth of 3.3 per cent in 2009, about half the 6.3 per cent expansion of last year. China would remain the world’s fastest-growing economy, putting in a 6.7 per cent pace, down from 9.0 per cent in 2008. India’s economic growth would slow to 5.1 per cent after 7.3 per cent.

To give the scale of the deepening recession, the IMF said the first annual global contraction during the postwar period would have a cumulative output loss — relative to potential growth — comparable to the 1974-1975 and 1980-1982 recessionary periods.

“A sustained economic recovery will not be possible until the financial sector’s functionality is restored and credit markets are unclogged,” it said.

The IMF cautioned that “the uncertainty surrounding the outlook is unusually large.”

“Downside risks continue to dominate, as the scale and scope of the current financial crisis have taken the global economy into uncharted waters,” it said.

Assuming that the necessary measures will be taken to address the crises and they are effective, the IMF forecast the global economy would recover in 2010, with growth of 3.0 per cent.

“The main risk is that unless stronger financial strains and uncertainties are forcefully addressed, the pernicious feedback loop between real activity and financial markets will intensify, leading to even more toxic effects on global growth.”

Source: indiatimes.com

UK PM Warned Of Global Financial Crisis 10 years Ago

 Gordon Brown today (27/01/09) said that he had warned of the current global financial crisis ten years ago – and that the current crisis is the birth pangs of a ‘new global order’.

The Prime Minister claimed that he had called for a stronger regulatory framework in the wake of the Asian money markets collapse in 1999.

But Mr Brown’s speech came as two new opinion polls show that Labour is losing the battle to convince voters that its anti-recession measures are working. His comments also came on the day that it emerged 75,000 jobs had been lost across the world in a single day, with more than 8,000 of them in Britain.

‘As I said in Harvard ten years ago, we need an early warning system so that international financial flows are properly monitored,’ Mr Brown said in a speech yesterday.

‘We must create a framework for the international governance that we currently lack. We must consider at a global level the regulatory deficit. For a decade I have said that the current patchwork arrangement is inadequate.’

The Prime Minister insisted the recession was just the ‘difficult birth pangs of a new global order’. Mr Brown warned that countries must see the financial crisis as the chance to forge a new financial system.

Setting the scene for April’s G20 talks in London, Mr Brown said: ‘If what happens to a bank in one country can within minutes have devastating effects for banks on a different continent, then only a truly international response of policy and governance can be effective.’
He said current ‘threats and challenges’ to the world economy should be seen as ‘the difficult birth pangs of a new global order’.

‘Our task now is nothing less than making the transition to a new internationalism with the benefits of an expanding global economy, not muddling through as pessimists, but making the necessary adjustment to a better future and setting new rules for this new global order’, he said.

FULL ARTICLE

• Baron David de Rothchiid: There Will Be A New Form Of Global Goverance
  

Restaurant Critic Michael Winner Endorse BTA Gourmet Card

The Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) has launched the Gourmet Card, which offers savings of up to 25% on meals at participating restaurants across the Caribbean island.

Part of a promotional initiative to highlight the quality of cuisine available in Barbados, the card will be valid from 15 April to 14 December this year.

Reportedly endorsed by restaurant critic and newspaper columnist Michael Winner, the Gourmet Card can be ordered on its own dedicated website.

It will provide discounts at establishments including the Aqua Restaurant and Luigi’s on the south coast, Brown Sugar near Bridgetown and Daphne’s Barbados on the island’s western side.

Barbados covers an area of only 166 square miles but is home to more than 100 restaurants and is the only country of its size to be the subject of a dedicated Zagat guide.

Petra Roach, the BTA’s European vice-president of marketing, said: ‘We are tremendously excited about the Barbados Gourmet Card, which follows on from the success of Barbados being the only Zagat-rated Caribbean island, and we warmly thank Mr Winner for his fantastic endorsement.

‘We take food very seriously, which is why our small island has so much variety and choice.’

Source: Opodo Travel News

Hmmm, no upscale restaurants listed like Sandy Lane restaurants. Can’t risk more exposure like that now can we! But then again should a five star resort  demeanour  itself  further by offering a discount card?  BTW  folks,  the card is for locals too not just tourists.

(barbadosgourmetcard.com)

• Sandy Lane’s Chef Food Gets Low Praise
  

Debt Ridden Air Jamaica To Cut Barbados Route Next Month

The head of Air Jamaica says the ailing carrier must eliminate six unprofitable routes and slash staff next month.

Bruce Noble is the chief executive of the debt-ridden airline. He says Air Jamaica’s flights to Atlanta, Miami, Los Angeles, Barbados, Grenada and the island of Grand Cayman will be cut in late February.

Noble said Tuesday that Jamaica’s national carrier had to “cut routes where we are losing money.”

He says an undetermined number of workers will be dismissed around the same time. Air Jamaica has eliminated other routes and trimmed its workforce in recent years.

Jamaica expects to divest itself from the airline by April. Prime Minister Bruce Golding has said the carrier was losing US$141 million a year.

Source: forbes.com