The International Monetary Fund (IMG) said that if Europe
doesn't tackly its worsening sovereign debt crisis, it could
force the U.S. and Europe into recession.
The IMF warned that both Europe's debt woes and a painfully
slow U.S. recovery could undermine global expansion. The
top economists as the global lender singled out Europe as
a major source of worry as the IMF's latest World Economic
Outlook report was released.
"There is a wide perception that policymakers are one step
behind the markets" IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard
stateed. Europe must get its act a together now.
Investors question Europe's ability to come up with a
convincing solution to it sovereign debt crisis, which has
rattled confidence and roiled financial markets.
The IMF cut its 2011 and 2012 global growth forecast to 4%
shaving projections for almost every region of the world
and saying risks remained tilted to the downside. Just
three months ago, it had projected an expansion of 4.3%
for 2011 and 4.5% for 2012.
Finance officials from around the world, who are set to
gather in Washington later this week for the semi-annual
meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, appeared to have
no concrete road map for how they will deal with the high
debt levels and fragile global recovery.
Sheila McKinney
