The global financial crisis may have “extremely serious” consequences — including famines — in developing countries in Africa and Latin America, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Monday.
IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said its World Economic Outlook, to be published on Wednesday, would show a marked fall in growth.
“The consequences, country by country, depend on the structure of their economies,” he told reporters at a conference of European and Latin American officials in Paris.
“The consequences may be extremely serious because they will be counted in terms of famine or malnutrition in children,” he warned.
The IMF’s number two official last month said the organisation was likely to predict in its World Economic Outlook that global growth would slip to 3% late this year, down from 5% in 2007.
He said it could climb back toward 4% in the course of 2009.
Reports in late August said the IMF had dropped its world growth projections for 2008 to 3,9% from 4,1%, and to 3,7 % from 3,9% for 2009. — AFP