Post date: Jan 28, 2012 4:33:17 PM
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, British Chancellor George Osborne and IMF chief Christine Lagarde are among those assessing an economic outlook still dominated by the euro zone crisis at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
DAVOS, SWITZERLAND (JANUARY 28, 2012) (REUTERS) - The euro crisis still dominates Davos. Japan's prime minister, Britain's finance minister and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) all told the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum on Saturday (January 28) that restoring the stability of the euro zone remains an issue of fundamental importance to the global economy.
"No one is immune in the current situation," said the IMF's Christine Lagarde. "It's not just a euro zone crisis, it's a crisis that could have collateral effects, spillover effects, around the world. And, you know, we'll hear from others. But what I have seen, and what we're seeing in numbers and in forecast, is that no country is immune, everybody has an interest in making sure that this crisis is resolved adequately."
Joining Lagarde on a WEF panel to consider the global economic outlook was Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, who said that in 40 years of public life, he had never known a crisis as severe as the current one.
"Let me share with you, I have never been as scared about the world as now, what is happening in Europe, looking back at our experience in 1980, the crisis we had, and the crisis we had in 1990s, this is a very big issue," he said.
UK Chancellor George Osborne voiced some rare British praise of how much action European leaders had already taken to tackle the crisis, pooling resources and seeking to reduce debt. But, he said, more needed to be done, and within weeks.
"The fact that we're still, at the beginning of 2012, talking about Greece, again, is a sign that this problem has not been dealt with, that this is the danger here that the tail wags the dog throughout this crisis. In other words, inability to deal with the specific problems in the periphery causes shockwaves across the whole European economy, and the world economy, and concluding the deal that will lead to a more sustainable situation in Greece is actually I think fundamental to stability in the euro zone," said Osborne.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, in a live televised message to the WEF meeting, called the European debt crisis the greatest risk to the world economy, and said that "within the euro zone there should be measures taken to alleviate the concerns of the international community, and the market".