The top executive of Brazil's state-owned development bank said Friday the current global financial crisis could be more severe than the Great Depression of the 1930s. National Development Bank President Luciano Coutinho said in Sao Paulo that a global financial disaster is possible because the world's economies are so tightly linked. Coutinho told reporters that Brazil is better positioned than in the past to handle a crisis because it has sufficient currency reserves and a healthy fiscal situation. But he also warned that economic growth in 2009 could be less than the 4.5 percent forecast by the government.
