2009, to be a real bad economic year :IMF

London, Dec 22: The lack of fiscal stimulus by governments to tackle the global economic slowdown may make an already bad 2009 even worse, opined International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in an interview on Sunday, Dec 21.

Strauss-Kahn was speaking to BBC radio. He was of the opinion that the IMF may need to cut its next economic growth forecasts, due in Jan, referring to '2009 as really being a bad year'.
"I'm specially concerned by the fact that our forecast, already very dark ... will be even darker if not enough fiscal stimulus is implemented," he said.

The IMF has called for fiscal stimulus, higher govt spending and temporary tax cuts, worth $120 trillion, or two per cent of global annual economic output, to fill the gap caused by slumping private demand following the credit crunch.

"The question of having social unrest has been highlighted by journalists- but it's only part of the problem," he said. "The problem is that all the whole society is going to suffer." "We've probably reached a point today where the quantity of money in the economy is fine globally. The question is even with this liquidity banks are very reluctant to lend. The main thing we have to do today is to restore confidence," he said.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)