Geneva, 7 October 2008 - UNCTAD will present its Trade and Development Report 2008 (TDR) to the Secretariat for Economic Planning and Development of the Dominican Republic at a video conference today.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, and Juan Temistocles Montás, the country´s Secretary of Economic Planning and Development, will discuss by video link to what extent -- as the report contends -- uncertainty and instability in international financial, currency, and commodity markets, coupled with doubts about the direction of monetary policy in some major developed countries, are contributing to a gloomy outlook for the world economy. The report says these factors present considerable risks for the developing world.
The videoconference will take place at 5 p.m. Geneva time and at 11 a.m. in the Dominican Republic. The presentation was requested by Minister Montás during a recent visit with Mr. Supachai. Also participating will be Luis Homero Luis Hernández, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations Office at Geneva. The Trade and Development Report 2008 was officially released on 4 September.
The economist authors of this year´s TDR say the ongoing global financial crisis and the possibility of tighter monetary policies in a number of countries presage major difficulties for the world economy for the remainder of 2008 and in 2009. It adds that the bursting of some speculative bubbles and the volatility of commodity prices pose formidable challenges for policymakers, in particular for monetary policy.
For a large number of developing countries, the economic outlook depends primarily on future trends in the prices of the primary commodities they export. Several structural factors support the expectation that prices will remain at a higher level than over the past 20 years, the report says, but cyclical factors, the withdrawal of speculative funds, and delayed supply responses could well bring about a significant downturn.
The President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Antonio Fernandez Reyna, in an address to the United Nations General Assembly, recently expressed concern about the effects of speculation on commodity prices.
