Business leaders and finance experts gathered in Italy have offered a downbeat assessment of the global economy with several predicting another recession due to a calamitous cocktail of sluggish growth, eurozone dysfunction, and financial market volatility. The year's events from natural disasters and violent uprisings to fears of debt defaults have not only sent shock waves through the financial world but also caused a slump in confidence among consumers and industry.
"There is a significant probability of a double-dip recession," New York University economist Nouriel Roubini said Friday in opening remarks that lived up to his nickname of "Dr Doom" earned for forecasting a financial crisis years before the 2008 crash, even as many revelled in the boom times. On this occasion Roubini seemed to reflect prevailing sentiment at the annual Ambrosetti Forum on the shores of an overcast Lake Como although some felt that at least the emerging economies and a few countries in northern Europe would do fine.