Awwal 10, 1432 / April 14, 2011, SPA -- The heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank warned Thursday that high food costs and unemployment remain dangerous obstacles to the world's economic and social stability despite global macroeconomic gains. Soaring food costs are "the biggest threat to the poor around the world," World Bank president Robert Zoellick told a Washington news conference opening the annual spring meetings of his institution and the IMF. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned of the possibility of a "lost generation" of unemployed young people if countries focus only on achieving fiscal balances without addressing social problems. Zoellick and Strauss-Kahn described the economic recovery from the 2007-2009 financial crisis as incomplete and still posing serious challenges for both rich and poor countries, and they called on the Group of Twenty (G20) advanced and developing economies-many of which have their own fiscal crises-to focus on food and employment issues.
