Robert Zoellick: No one knows how long this crisis will last

PanARMENIAN.Net - How to help the developing world cope with the worst global slump since the 1930s Great Depression was top of the agenda for the joint International Monetary Fund and World Bank Development Committee meeting on Sunday.



The crisis "has already driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty ... We must alleviate its impact on developing countries and facilitate their contribution to global recovery," they said in a statement.



"No one knows how long this crisis will last," World Bank president Robert Zoellick told a news conference after the close of the Development Committee meeting.



Zoellick warned that it would be extremely difficult to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, which focus on reducing poverty, by 2015.



"As developing countries are facing the trials of the global economic crisis, it is vitally important that economic stimulus packages in the developed world are accompanied by support to those that cannot afford multi-billion (dollar) bailouts," Zoellick said at the launch.



A World Bank/IMF report warned on Friday that the crisis means up to 90 million more people will remain trapped in extreme poverty this year while the chronically hungry could top one billion.



The crisis "has already driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty ... We must alleviate its impact on developing countries and facilitate their contribution to global recovery."