Serious Social Disruption

The leader of the World Bank has warned that the current global economic crisis could cause serious social disruption.

Robert Zoellick says: “If we do not take measures, there is a risk of serious human and social crisis with very serious political implications.”

He specifically points to Eastern European countries which already face the “tricky situation” of economies that shrink quickly and protests.

Mr Zoellick also suggests that the government should be preparing for extremely high levels of unemployment.

Nobody Knows What’s Going To Happen

Mr Zoellick warned in an interview with El Pais, a Spanish newspaper: “In my opinion, in this context, nobody really knows what is going to happen and the best one can do is be ready for any eventuality.

“There is also what I call the ‘X-Factor’, that one can not foresee,” including things like the recent outbreak of swine flu.

He added that: “Latin America has remained reasonably stable, even if Mexico and Central America are under pressure because they rely a lot on the North American market.”

Last week, economists figures were released, showing that the economy in Mexico, which has been worst affected so far by swine flu, shrank 8.2% in the first three months of this year (2009) compared to the same time last year (2008). This is even though Mexico sends 80% of its exports to the US.

53 Million At Risk Of Extreme Poverty

Many other economies in the Eastern European area have registered double figure percentages as their GDP decline. Latvia and Estonia seem to be two of the worst affected.

The retiring Bank of England rate-setter David Blanchflower still predicts that at least another million people in the UK will lose their jobs before the recession is over.

The World Bank has already released a warning for the world’s poorest countries about what they call a “human catastrophe” unless more is done to tackle and prevent the worsening of the current economic crisis.

The World Bank claims that it believes an extra 53 million people could be at risk of extreme poverty because of the economic problems.

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