Via the BBC: BBC NEWS | Business | World growth ‘worst for 60 years’
World economic growth is set to fall to just 0.5% this year, its lowest rate since World War II, warns the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Now, the report does predict a modest recovery in 2010, with a 3% global growth rate. Of course, they predicted a 2.8% growth rate for 2009 just a few months ago, so…
In other cheery news, Global job losses ‘could hit 51m’ (also via the BBC):
As many as 51 million jobs worldwide could be lost this year because of the global economic crisis, says the International Labour Organization(ILO).The UN agency says that would push up the world’s unemployment rate to 7.1% by the end of 2009, compared with 6.0% in 2008 and 5.7% in 2007.
The ILO’s most optimistic forecast is for 18 million more unemployed, giving a global jobless rate of 6.1%.
It says developing countries will suffer most from additional job losses.
