Finance crisis ‘could lead to war’, IMF warns

Kirsty Walker
Daily Mail
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The global financial crisis could lead to social unrest and even war, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned yesterday.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that the billions already pumped into the world economy risked disappearing into thin air unless there is massive reform of the financial sector.

And he dealt a severe blow to Gordon Brown’s plans for another debt-funded Budget giveaway by warning that the money might melt ‘like snow in the sun’.

At a meeting of the International Labour Organisation, Mr Strauss-Kahn warned that the global economic crisis is ‘dire’ with the threat of millions being pushed into poverty.

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The managing director of the global financial watchdog went on to warn governments against ploughing yet more fiscal stimulus into their ailing economies. He said: ‘You can put in as much stimulus as you want.

‘It will just melt in the sun as snow if at the same time you are not able to have a generally smaller financial sector than before but a healthy financial sector at work.’

The IMF has called on countries to pump 2 per cent of their gross domestic product into their economies in an attempt to reverse the global downturn.

Of the international situation, Mr Strauss-Kahn added: ‘Bluntly the situation is dire. All this will affect dramatically unemployment and beyond unemployment for many countries it will be at the roots of social unrest, some threat to democracy, and maybe for some cases it can also end in war.’

Full story here.

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