Recovery of world economy not guaranteed in 2010 - WTO chief

The world economy may not emerge out of crisis in 2010 due to "bubbles" created by the huge injections of money used to keep the financial system operating, World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy has said.

"You have to be realistic, it is not guaranteed," the WTO director general said on French radio when asked whether the world economy would recover in 2010.

"There is no doubt we have reached the bottom of the pool but the speed at which we are coming up again is not clear. In flooding the economic and financial system with public money we have also created bubbles which will have to be absorbed," Mr Lamy told France Culture radio.

Governments around the world have spent trillions of dollars over the past 18 months avoiding the collapse of the financial system and then trying to claw away from recession.

The WTO chief highlighted the dynamism of the emerging economic powers - China, Brazil, India and South Africa - in avoiding the worst of the crisis.

"These are the more dynamic, better run, less indebted countries," said Mr Lamy. "These are the countries which are from a certain point of view better run than the western economies."