Figures that speak for themselves…

By: Elson Concepcion

Havana, Cuba. – The recently published figures of the world economy in 2009 are frightening. Today the end of the ongoing economic crisis is nowhere in sight. 
 
Some governments speak of an incipient recovery, but many say it is a cruel mirage, since the impact of the economic crisis will be felt for many years. 
 
At world level, last year the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell 2, 4% in the United States;  4% in the 27 countries of the European Union and 1, 8% in Latin America. 
 
These are figures that speak for themselves. They show the catastrophe that characterizes capitalism and neoliberalism, whose negative impact has spread all over the planet.  
 
Experts in this topic identify the destruction of collective and individual wealth with the decreasing revenues of enterprises and the fall of the real wage. Of course, there is also growing unemployment and the value loss of assets like real state. 
 
Economists, historians and analysts believe that the GDP level of 2007 will only be reached again in 2014-2015. 
 
For example, in the case of US families, their losses due to the crisis are estimated in about $ 11 billions. The impact has admittedly been much harder for countries that adopted a growth pattern based on consumption afforded by high indebtedness. 
 
Consumerism has led Spain and Great Britain to pay high prices through credits and the real state bubble. 
 
According to figures published by the International Labor Organization (ILO), more than 40 million people have joined the ranks of the unemployed since the beginning of the crisis in 2007.   
 
United States leads this negative count with the highest level of unemployment in the last 25 years (10%). On the other hand, unemployment reached 9, 6% in the 16 countries members of the Eurozone. In Latin America, more than two million people lost their jobs in 2009. 
 
The Central Bank of England estimates in $ 14 billions the total sum that developed countries need to rescue their financial sector. 

Translated by: Pedro A. Fanego

( 03.12.2009 10:13 AM )