World Bank forecasts global economic growth for 2010, notes toll of financial crisis

After shrinking in 2009, the world economy is expected to grow in 2010 and 2011, the World Bank predicted in a report issued Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports in a piece that outlines the bank's predictions (Smith, 1/20).

"[T]he report concluded that the [economic] crisis had 'provoked large-scale human suffering,'" the New York Times writes. The World Bank "estimated that 64 million more people would live on less than $1.25 a day this year than would have been the case without the crisis. A separate working paper published by the bank estimated that 30,000 to 50,000 children might have died of malnutrition last year because of the crisis," according to the newspaper (Chan, 1/20).

AFP adds that "by the end of 2010, 90 million more people are expected to be living in poverty than would have been the case without the crisis. The bank said an additional 35-50 billion dollars in funding would be needed just to maintain current levels of programming" (1/20).

The World Bank also "warned that developing economies will face weak economic expansion and will suffer lingering difficulties in raising money - a cocktail of factors which will make them particularly vulnerable to instability for five to seven years," the Telegraph reports. "With the developing world facing such strains in the coming years, Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, has said that the institution will have to raise more money from national governments if it is to cope with the likely demand for emergency funds," according to the newspaper (Conway, 1/21).