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eing raised for private borrowers. In turn, this puts a drag on the economic recovery.<br />

At the same time, nervousness in financial markets may reduce confidence in indebted<br />

countries, raising the cost of borrowing in these nations, which then curbs economic<br />

recovery.<br />

There are also a number of potential medium-term consequences from the<br />

global financial crisis. Bank lending is not expected to recover soon. Furthermore,<br />

higher government debt and the need to cut expenditure could slow down productivity<br />

growth. In general, increased risk aversion, the necessity of banks to deleverage<br />

and capitalize, as well as disenchantment with financial innovation that contributed<br />

to boosting liquidity, points to the possibility of higher borrowing costs for both developed<br />

and developing countries. This could lead to a decline in the potential growth<br />

rate, since financial services are critical to the smooth functioning of an economy.<br />

In many respects, pessimism over longer term global economic growth potential<br />

can be traced to concerns that a backlash against globalization may come as a<br />

result of the disillusionment with the vulnerability of open markets, in particular<br />

capital market liberalization. Increased protectionism and more regionalism could<br />

endanger the present expectations of a benign recovery in global trade and economic<br />

welfare.<br />

For all of these reasons it is important to consider alternative, lower economic<br />

growth paths from the Reference Case assumptions.<br />

The assumption made in the lower economic growth scenario is for each region<br />

to witness 0.5% lower growth than in the Reference Case throughout the projection<br />

period. This does not, of course, preclude the possibility of more severe short-,<br />

medium- or long-term downward pressures upon growth.<br />

On the other hand, uncertainties over economic growth can also point to upside<br />

potential. A central focus of such a higher growth scenario would be how this might<br />

translate into oil demand, as well as the call on OPEC crude.<br />

The drivers behind such higher economic growth could be several. Firstly, in<br />

the coming years, emerging markets that are not as financially constrained as major<br />

OECD regions increasingly become the motors of world growth. The shift in economic<br />

weight to emerging markets, especially those in Asia, will have far-reaching<br />

economic and geopolitical consequences, some of which are slowly beginning to unfold.<br />

The emergence of the G-20 as the premier economic forum and the recognition<br />

by the G-20 in its Pittsburgh Summit Leaders Statement in September 2009 that<br />

“critical players need to be at the table and fully vested in our institutions to allow<br />

135<br />

Chapter<br />

4

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