CRISIS FOCUS: Risks to Recovery

A sustained recovery of the global economy at a slow but steady pace should be expected in the first quarter of 2010, according to the quarterly report on global economic and financial outlook compiled by the International Finance Research Institute of the Bank of China. But three risks stand out, the report said, that threaten recovery efforts: the sovereign credit crisis, growing inflation pressures and increasing numbers of small and medium-sized U.S. banks filing for bankruptcy.