ECONOMY: Trickle Down Misery (Abid Aslam)

  WASHINGTON, Mar 4 (IPS) - The world's poorest people had nothing to do with the financial gimmickry that has brought the global economy to its knees but they are paying a heavy price for it and relief seems a long way off.

  Poverty is increasing and the spectre of political upheaval looms over developing countries whose export earnings have dwindled amid tumbling commodity prices and sluggish global trade. Foreign investment and aid budgets are being cut. The resilience of remittances from migrant workers is being tested by a deep and still-unfolding recession.

  As Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), puts it: "After hitting first the advanced economies and then the emerging economies, a third wave from the global financial crisis is now hitting the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries."

  In jeopardy, he adds, are "the major achievements of higher growth, lower poverty, and greater political stability that many low-income countries have made over the past decade."

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