True to my contrarian point of view the next few days may get testy...



World economic situation serious: IMF


http:// www.news.com.au


ALL developed countries are suffering from the slowdown in the US putting the world economy in a serious situation, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said overnight.

His comments came after world stock markets fell sharply and demand for safe-haven bonds and currencies soared on fears a slowdown in the US economy would be worse than expected.
”The situation is serious,'' he said. ”All countries in the world are suffering from the slowdown in growth in the United States, all countries in the developed world.''

He warned that emerging market growth could also be dragged down by the outlook in the US.

”Fortunately, emerging markets continue to have strong enough growth and will continue to drive global growth. Nevertheless, it is not impossible that it may have an effect even on emerging market countries, that growth is weaker than forecast.''

US markets were closed on Monday for a holiday, but US stock index futures were down sharply, suggesting investors were pessimistic about the outlook for US stocks.

Investors in Asia and Europe were carrying through from last week's concern on Wall Street that a $US150 billion fiscal stimulus proposed by President George W. Bush would not be enough to stop the US economy falling into recession.

”It seems financial markets did not appreciate the package put forward by President Bush,'' Mr Strauss-Kahn said.

”We see that the markets did not react positively to the proposals that were made.

”It shows that in the United States the debate is becoming quite pointed on the risks and therefore on the need to try to ward them off by monetary policy, but not only that,'' he said.
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This is not the time to panic, but surely is a time to be vigilant! You can start here