The president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, warned this Tuesday that the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas risks having serious economic consequences.
“I think what is happening in Israel and Gaza… will have a serious impact on economic development,” Banga said during an investor conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“I think we are in a very dangerous moment,” he said, quoted by the French agency AFP.
Hamas commandos carried out an unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, which was followed by Israeli retaliation with the total siege of the Gaza Strip and constant bombing of the territory.
Israeli authorities say Hamas attacks killed more than 1,400 people and that the Palestinian group kidnapped 220 Israelis and foreigners, holding them hostage in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, said Israeli bombings had killed more than 5,000 people, including more than 2,000 children.
Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
At the opening of the annual Future Investment Initiative conference, the president of the World Bank referred to the impact on the global economy and development of the “geopolitical changes of the last four years.”
Banga called for “joint efforts by all” international actors to limit the negative impact of these changes.
He regretted that “the pandemic [de Covid-19] followed by the war between Ukraine and Russia, and now the war between Israel and Gaza.”
“The world economy needs efforts” to recover, he stated, quoted by the Spanish agency EFE.
He also considered that “geopolitical risks in some countries” are an obstacle to private sector investment and “will have an impact on energy and supply chains.”
“It would be difficult to invest in a project for 10 or 15 years amid political or geopolitical uncertainty,” he told participants at the forum, often called “Desert Davos,” referring to the meeting held in Switzerland.
More than six thousand delegates from 90 countries are participating in the three-day forum, including leaders of the world’s leading banks and companies, and the presidents of South Korea, Kenya and Rwanda, according to organizers.
Source: TSF
