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Balls says crisis worst for 100 years: report

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-10 11:50

LONDON -- Schools Secretary Ed Balls has warned the economic downturn will be worse than the Great Depression, reports said Monday.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls, pictured in 2008, has warned the economic downturn will be worse than the Great Depression, reports said Monday. [Agencies]

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Balls, who is close to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, told a conference at the weekend that the crisis was the most serious global recession for "over 100 years," according to the Yorkshire Post newspaper.

"I think this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s," Mr Balls told the gathering in Yorkshire, northern England, in what is being viewed as the gloomiest forecast yet by a senior minister.

He added: "We now are seeing the realities of globalisation, though at a speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before.

"The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years, as it will turn out."                

George Osborne, finance spokesman for the main opposition Conservatives, said the remarks were "worrying" and contradicted government forecasts that the economy will recover by the second half of the year.

Balls' office sought to play down the comments, saying he was not the first to highlight the unprecedented speed and ferocity of the crisis.

Last week, Brown said the world was in a full-blown economic "depression", but his office quickly scrambled to say it been a slip of the tongue.