World Bank chief Robert Zoellick on Saturday warned of a “new and more dangerous” time in the global economy, with little breathing space in most developed countries as a debt crisis hits Europe. Zoellick said the eurozone’s sovereign debt issues were more troubling than the “medium and long-term” problems which saw the United States downgraded by Standard and Poor’s last week, sending global markets into panic.
“We are in the early moments of a new and different storm, it’s not the same as 2008,” said Zoellick, referring to the global financial crisis. “In the past couple of weeks the world has moved from a troubled multi-speed recovery — with emerging markets and a few economies like Australia having good growth and developed markets struggling — to a new and more dangerous phase,” he said in an interview with the Weekend Australian newspaper. People were in less debt than during the credit crunch and current events did not have the same “sudden shock” factor, but Zoellick said there was less room to manoeuvre this time around.
