The world economy is set to shrink by 1 to 2 percent this year, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said at a conference on Saturday.

Referring to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast, Zoellick said such a worldwide economic contraction was unprecedented since the Great Depression in the 1930's.

"We haven't seen a figure like that globally since World War Two, which really means since the Great Depression," he told the gathering sponsored by the German Marshall Fund transatlantic think tank.

What the world's countries are now doing are "too little and too late" and fall short of effective measures in addressing the roots of the global financial meltdown, said the World Bank chief.

He suggested a system of reviews on the impact of existing stimulus plans undertaken by governments to be established at the upcoming G20 London summit in early April.

"Some of the packages actually withdraw stimulus in 2010. So given the uncertainty of this crisis I think you want to have a review process to see whether more would be needed in 2010."

Zoellick also called for more efforts to revive world trade and provide continued assistance to poor nations, which suffered a lot in the economic crisis they are not responsible for.

(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2009)