The world’s political and business elite headed home fromthis year's Davos forum with warnings that while the worst of the financialcrisis seems over there is still much to be done.
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said inthe closing moments of the annual gathering in the snowy Swiss ski resort thatshe recommended the “do not relax principle” for the coming year.
Where for the two previous years a sense of crisis had hungover the World Economic Forum, the mood was sunnier at the 2013 edition asspeaker after speaker said they were now cautiously optimistic.
“I feel the circumstances in which I’m addressing you todayare very different than 12 months ago,” said Italian Prime Minister Mario Montiin his opening speech, following a torrid year dominated by the euro crisis.
European central banker Mario Draghi meanwhile hailed 2012as the year that the troubled single currency was “relaunched”, even as otherswere hailing him as the man who had saved the eurozone from catastrophe.
The Chinese economy's slowdown seemed less serious than ayear ago to the participants while the step back from the fiscal cliff in theUnited States also eased minds.
But as the 2,500 world leaders, financial officials, tycoonsand journalists departed the picture-postcard Alpine resort, they may have felta chill that was not just down to the subzero temperatures.
Lagarde said the IMF’s forecast of a “very fragile and timidrecovery for 2013” was based on “eurozone leaders, the US authorities on theother hand and the Japanese authorities making the right decisions.”
She added: “And that’s what I mean by ‘do not relax’ becausesome good policy decisions have been made in various parts of the world. In2013, they have to keep the momentum.”
The head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (OECD), Angel Gurria, warned meanwhile that countries had exhaustedmost room for manoeuvre in terms of fiscal and monetary policy.
“We should be very worried because the lack of room for someof the more traditional tools has gone and we are left with very few of thesetools,” he said.
