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By Ali Abdullahi
WASHINGTON (Islam Online) – This weekend’s meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund has attracted protestors slamming the giant financial institutions’ policies toward underdeveloped countries. Throughout the week, the World Bank and IMF entrances were barricaded, and shops and offices within the vicinity were closed, with police on high alert and trying desperately to avoid a repeat of the “Battle of Seattle,” when riots destroyed many businesses and disrupted the meetings of the World Trade Organization last year. The World Bank’s economic outlook predicts global growth of about 4.25 percent, but expresses concern over imbalanced rates between different national economies. The United States continues to grow strongly, running up huge trade deficits as it imports heavily, while much of the rest of the world continues to feel the lingering effects of the 1997 financial panic. The report praised recent interest rate hikes by the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, and said it probably needs to impose more to cool off economic overheating. Chief economist Michael Mussa said the deficits that the United States has registered as it sucks in imports are “not a sustainable scenario.” A slowdown would likely reduce the deficit by cutting Americans' buying power. World Bank President James Wolfensohn said to reporters that an important bank objective at the weekend meeting, which will bring together finance ministers from key World Bank and IMF member nations, will be organizing a better attack on AIDS, which he added is a development as well as a health issue, especially in Africa. The bank will also work to fit poor countries' economies better into the world trading system. “It doesn't make a lot of sense to help countries build their output and then deny them market access,” said Wolfensohn. The bank has pressed for industrial countries to give broad lowering of tariffs to poor countries. Congress is delaying action on a White House-backed plan to give African and Caribbean nations easier access to the U.S. market. The United States is also backing a plan at the World Trade Organization for opening markets to poor countries, though many analysts see it as less comprehensive than what the World Bank wants.
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