Zoellick said the World Bank expects the world economy to shrink between 1 percent and 2 percent this year, worse than the latest forecast released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"We have not seen a figure like that globally since World War II, which really means since the Great Depression," he said.

The IMF forecast on Thursday that the world economy will contract between 0.5 percent and 1 percent this year.

Zoellick warned that injecting money into the economy without fixing the credit systems will inevitability lead to another crash, calling it a "sugar high."

"The issue now that is most important are the bad assets and recapitalizing the banks, and the reason I use 'sugar high' was that it is like if you have to have stimulus, it gives you a boost, but unless you get the credit system working again, it will drop off," he said.

Zoellick proposed that the G20 should establish a review process to determine whether further stimulus measures are needed.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2009)