[A-List] US imperialism: IMF criticism

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

War will hit markets hard, warns IMF

Larry Elliott, economics editor
Friday September 13, 2002
The Guardian

The west's fragile stock markets could be plunged into fresh turmoil by
a campaign to topple Saddam Hussein over the coming months, the
International Monetary Fund warned last night.

At a time when economic recovery following September 11 was weaker and
taking longer than expected, the IMF said that war against Iraq might
hit global growth and unsettle investors by pushing up the cost of oil.

Gerd Häusler, the IMF's director of international capital markets,
said: "Purely from a financial markets perspective a serious conflict
with Iraq would not be a very healthy development."

At the launch in London of the IMF's quarterly global financial
stability report, Mr Häusler said there could be a repeat of what
happened in 1990 following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, when there was
a sharp rise in oil prices. "The financial markets would react to a
spike [in oil prices] at a time when economic recovery is weaker and
further off than many of us had anticipated weeks and months ago."

The IMF's comments came as George Bush's speech to the UN heightened war
fears and pushed share prices lower on Wall Street.

"Bush's comments on Iraq make the market think there is significant
potential for a war in Iraq," said Brad Stone, head of US market
strategy at Barclays Capital.