Gloomy outlook from the WEF presents our challenge

The World Economic Forum has said that the global economy could not face major new shocks.


Its report on Global Risks 2011 warns that risks are caused by economic imbalances, volatile currencies and commodity prices and budget shortfalls.

Other risks come from population increase which will increase demand for water, food and energy by 30-50% in the next 20 years.

These gloomy forecasts are made even bleaker by the warning from the WEF that governments are showing no signs of co-operating in achieving sustainable economic growth across the globe.

Chief business officer at WEF, Robert Greenhill, said that while the crash of 1929 had taken months to filter through to affect the world, that of 2008 had an impact within minutes. This was cause by “increasingly connected systems” giving us threats of “disastrous impacts”.

Interestingly Mr Greenhill said that while the G20 had come together in a crisis, he wondered whether they would be able “to identify and address a crisis before it happens”.

It’s all pretty bleak stuff.

But Mr Greenhill also said that countries and companies who understood the risks, and came up with solutions to cope with the crisis, would be able to unlock "global opportunities", the BBC reported.

There’s our challenge.