The World Economic Forum released today Global Risks 2008, which highlights the need for new thinking and concerted action on a number of problems. The report expresses fears that the current liquidity crunch will spark a US recession in the next 12 months and calls for new thinking on systemic financial risk in response to the revolution in financial markets over the last two decades. It also recommends a set of principles for country risk management and examines how the financial sector might take on an increasingly important role in risk transfer in the future.
The report also warns that food security will become an increasingly complex political and economic problem over the next few years, with issues of equity and trade-offs between security and other issues making the design of global policy both difficult and necessary. Greater cooperation on managing vulnerabilities associated with cross-border supply chains and concentrations of production may also be needed. Finally, with the dollar price of oil at record highs, the report recommends an improved approach to securing viable energy supplies in the years ahead.
Global Risks 2008, published in cooperation with Citigroup, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Swiss Re, the Wharton School Risk Center and Zurich Financial Services, highlights key areas of risk that will be a focus of discussions by business leaders and public policy-makers at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos later this month.
The report is based on input from a network of more than 100 top business leaders, decision-makers, scientists and other leading academics convened throughout 2007 as part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Network. The topics identified in the report will be at the core of the agenda for the Annual Meeting.
See full Press Release.
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