G7 upbeat but warning on poverty
THE World Bank has sounded a grim warning that many developing countries will remain mired in desperate poverty, despite renewed optimism about the global economic recovery.
New figures show the international community's commitment to halving the number of people living on less than $1 (69p) a day by 2015 will not be met in some regions.
Although there have been huge strides in eradicating poverty in countries such as India and China, the World Bank said progress had been uneven. One example is sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of poor is expected to rise from 300m in 1999 to 345m by 2015. Life expectancy has fallen from 50 years to 47 since 1990.
'The study is not a final verdict on how countries will perform but it is a warning that many are not on track to reach many of the goals,' said Shanta Devarajan, a World Bank economist. Other goals include improvements in health and education. The warning came as the Group of Seven rich nations struck an upbeat tone about prospects for the global economy at the weekend's International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings in Washington.
The G7 finance chiefs vowed to do whatever was necessary to sustain the pick-up in activity in the face of risks such as dearer oil.
'Economic recovery from the slowdown is under way, supported by appropriate and proactive macroeconomic policies that were in part a response to the tragic events of 11 September, but downside risks remain, including those arising from oil markets,' they said in a statement following the weekend's meetings.
Chancellor Gordon Brown, who chaired the IMF's decision making committee, added: 'Last autumn there was widespread pessimism about the global economy with fears of a global slowdown or even a global recession. We agreed this afternoon that since the committee's last meeting the prospects for the world economy had improved markedly.'
Bank of England Governor Sir Edward George, who was also at the meetings, said: 'We have been positively encouraged that we have seen more spending to offset the external situation. There is a feeling on the monetary policy committee that we have not reached a point at which we have become concerned (about the level of household debt).'
