Interview: Expert says economic outlook for next year could be dimmer

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24, (Xinhua) -- Economic outlook for 2012 could be dimmer with growth pace subdued by European debt woes, feeble U.S. recovery and slowdown in emerging markets, a renowned economist of a leading American thinktank said.

Uri Dadush, director of International Economics Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Xinhua in a recent interview that "this year is disappointing, but not a disaster."

He said the advanced economies could have grown a bit faster, the overall growth rate for this year is somewhere near 4 percent, a level above the 10-year pre-crisis average. However, the 4 percent growth is essentially contributed by the continued rapid growth of developing countries.

The former World Bank director of international trade then cautioned about the deeper gloom threatening the performance of 2012, saying that the outlook for next year is at best a slower global economy than we saw this year.

According to him, the best scenario for next year would be a slower growth due to great uncertainties, including evolution of European debt crisis and its spillover effects, still feeble recovery in the U.S., as well as slowdown in emerging countries in their course of structural reform.

The conditions "could be quite a lot worse," Dadush warned.