Brown says world in ‘depression,’ in latest slip

AFP
Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that the world is in a full-blown economic “depression,” but his office quickly scrambled to say it been a slip of the tongue.

In his latest apparent gaffe — after mistakenly claiming to have “saved the world” in December — Brown said governments need to agree on coordinated stimulus measures to “take the world out of depression.”

Brown, who is to host a summit of the Group of 20 advanced and developing nations in April, underlined the need for a rapid agreement on the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s Doha round of trade liberalisation talks.

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“The biggest danger that the world faces is a retreat into protectionism,” he told lawmakers at a weekly question session in the House of Commons dominated by the economic gloom.

“It’s all the more reason why first of all we should sign the Doha agreement… and secondly we should make sure that every country is analysed for what it is doing by the World Trade Organization to prevent protectionism.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“It also is absolutely clear that we should agree as a world on a monetary and fiscal stimulus that will take the world out of depression,” added the British leader, who more usually uses the words recession or slowdown.

Full story here.

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