WB warns against future econ. hardship

Amid the ongoing financial crisis in the United States and Europe, World Bank (WB) President Robert Zoellick has warned that more dangerous times will be ahead for the global economy.

“In the past couple of weeks, the world has moved from a troubled multi-speed recovery to a new and more dangerous phase,” Zoellick told the Weekend Australia newspaper on Saturday.

He also said the eurozone’s sovereign debt issues were more troubling than the medium and long-term problems that led to the downgrading of the US’s rating by the credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s last week.

“We are in the early moments of a new and different storm, it’s not the same as [the] 2008 [financial crisis],” he added.

The head of the World Bank urged the European leaders to approach their debt problems with a greater sense of urgency.

“The lesson of 2008 is that the later you act, the more you have to do,” Zoellick said.

He also questioned whether troubled European nations could “ever get ahead of the problems that have plagued them.”

Zoellick pointed out that the world is now involved in redesigning the international financial system and that power is moving rapidly to fast-growing nations like China.