Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:55:29
Warren Buffett
The world's richest man Warren Buffett has warned the US economic recession is more severe, deeper and longer than most people think.
"This is not a field of specialty for me, but my general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think," Buffett said. "This will not be short and shallow."
"I think consumers are feeling gas and food prices and not feeling they've got a lot of money for other things," said the 77-year-old Buffet who ranked by Forbes in March as the world's richest person, ahead of Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim and Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates.
Despite being worth an estimated $62 billion, Buffett, known for his frugality, has been living in the same 10-room house for the past fifty years.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke early in April acknowledged that a recession may be on the horizon for the world's largest economy.
On Wednesday, the US Commerce Department is to report on the US economic growth in the first quarter. Economists estimated that gross domestic product grew at an annualized 0.2 percent rate in the quarter. Two quarters of declining GDP is a traditional sign of recession.
In mid-March, the OECD pictured a grim future for America, announcing that the world's top economy was teetering on the brink of recession.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) slashed its estimate of US growth to 0.1 percent in the first quarter and predicted a rate of zero expansion in US gross domestic product for the second quarter of 2008.
MK/GM
Source: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=53582§ionid=3510203 
