World economic growth forecast

The world is poised for strong economic growth this year and next, major industrial nations concluded at a weekend meeting in Washington, even though there are concerns about high oil prices and continuing unrest in the Middle East.

Finance ministers and central bankers wrapped up three days of talks with a meeting of the World Bank’s policy-setting committee on how to help developing countries improve living standards.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn said there was a reasonable chance the international community would achieve the first of a series of ambitious objectives, halving global poverty by 2015, “but that’s because of the remarkable progress in India and China,” whose economies have been soaring.

But he and other officials said the other UN millennium development goals in such areas as education, health and other fields agreed on four years ago would not be met.

Critics of the 184-nation World Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, such as Oxfam, the international relief agency, say rich countries are failing the poor. It has urged these countries to urgently increase debt relief and boost aid funding so developing countries can reach the millennium objectives.

To have a reasonable chance of reaching the millennium goals, experts estimate that foreign aid to developing countries, currently running at 50 billion a year, needs to be increased to 100 billion.

A peaceful crowd of about 1,000 anti-globalisation demonstrators marched through 15 blocks of downtown Washington on Saturday to protest at the policies of the World Bank and the IMF, which they say favour wealthy nations at the expense of the world’s poorest countries.

This year’s meetings were being held against the backdrop of a global economy that the IMF is forecasting will grow at a 4.6% clip this year and 4.4% next year, the fastest back-to-back growth years in a decade.

However, the IMF also cautioned that this bright prospect could be derailed if oil prices go up more or if the unstable security situation in the Middle East begins to weaken consumer and business confidence and rattle global financial markets.