Statement, 24-26 June 2009
Statement to the United Nations Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, New York
This crisis triggered by widespread speculative lending and investment in major international financial centres is causing a major setback to development and poverty reduction. The combination of sharply declining export earnings, collapse of remittances, reversal of private capital flows and an extreme degree of credit squeeze affecting even trade finance is producing a sharp economic slowdown and contraction in many parts of the developing world. According to the most recent projections by the World Bank, as many as 90 million people in the developing world could slide into poverty this year, coming on top of some 100 million new poor created by the food crisis. On FAO’s estimates, the crisis has increased hungry people by 100 million, bringing the total to exceed a billion.
This article was tagged: Capital Flows, Debt Sustainability, Exchange Rate, Group of 20 (G-20), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Reform of the International Financial System
