2009 threatens to be "a dangerous year"

World Bank wants Britain and US to track how well stimulus works

The head of the World Bank has called on Britain, the US and other major economies to establish ways of tracking the effectiveness of their growing fiscal stimulus packages.

By Richard Blackden
Last Updated: 9:37PM GMT 21 Mar 2009

World Bank President Robert Zoellick says that 2009 threatens to be "a dangerous year"

"There is a legitimate debate about how the stimulus will be used," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said yesterday. "If you are going to have very big expansionary programmes, you need to show some fiscal discipline." The comments come less than two weeks before a critical G20 Summit in London at which leaders of the world's major economies will be seeking a consensus on a new set of measures to help drag the world out of recession.
Mr Zoellick says that 2009 threatens to be "a dangerous year" in which the economic crisis has the potential to spill over into political and social unrest in a number of countries.

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The World Bank last week forecast the global economy will contract by as much as 2pc this year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5029116/World-Bank-wants-Britain-and-US-to-track-how-well-stimulus-works.html