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| Edited By: |Source: PTI |Updated: Mar 30, 2018, 04:24 AM IST
In an otherwise gloomy outlook, India and China are seen as the bright spots which can provide traction to the global economy, battling the European debt crisis and unrest among unemployed youth, top economists and business leaders said on the opening day of the WEF meet here.
In the morning session on 'New Economic Reality', it was a "glass half empty and half full" for economist Nouriel Roubini, famed for his predictions on 2008 financial crisis.
For others like Wipro chief Azim Premji and Citigroup head Vikram Pandit, there is lot of growth left in India, China, Africa and Latin America even as the rich world struggles with anaemic economic prospects.
"Emerging markets are doing well, there is still growth in China and India...," Roubini said.
In the session also attended by IMF Special Advisor Zhu Min, Premji said the balance of economic power is shifting to the emerging economies.
"The way trends are going, in ten years, the economies of emerging worlds will be in excess of $20 trillion...," he said.
However, inflation and possible asset bubbles pose challenges for these emerging economies which have to deal with the recent rise in energy prices.
The five-day meeting kicked off to a breezy start here on the scenic snowy slopes of Swiss Alps.
The Indian contingent, though weak in terms of government presence, has corporate honchos including Bharti group head Sunil Mittal and Premji.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma would be reaching here on January 27 while Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a regular at Davos, has not landed either.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest report has projected India and China to clock growth rates of 7% and 8.2%, respectively, this year.
However, the global economy is expected to expand 3.3%, with the US anticipated to grow 1.8% in 2012 while Europe could possibly see another recession, IMF has said.
Earlier addressing the media, WEF meeting co-chair and Citigroup chief Vikram Pandit said the single biggest issue was of job creation, both in developed and developing markets.
According to him, about 400 million new jobs could be needed to be generated in next 10 years.
"It is time to have a clear path and put in the money for growth. We need to recommit ourselves to globalisation," he noted.
During discussions about how well are businesses meeting their social responsibilities, private equity major Carlyle Group Founder David Rubenstein asserted that business community has not lost its moral compass.
"Capitalism may be the worst economic system except for any of the others," he pointed out.
On the global conditions, noted economist Raghuram Rajan said the 20th century strength of the Western economy has failed to live up to its promise to the workers of rich world.
"Some countries, the UK and the US, tried to revive it (growth) through deregulation and managed for a while, but in general growth is too slow in the industrial world relative to the promises we have made," Rajan, who is Eric J Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business in the University of Chicago, said.
