WEF signals risky future

Reports

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published a frightening report on the risks faced by the global community during the next ten years.

In its seventh Global Risks report, WEF presented what it describes as a "snapshot" of how 469 industry leaders and experts perceive the evolving, interconnected, risks that cut across society, the economy, the environment, geopolitics and technology.

Chronic fiscal imbalances and severe income disparity are the risks seen as most prevalent over the next ten years. Acting in tandem, these risks threaten global growth as they are drivers of nationalism, populism and protectionism at a time when the world remains vulnerable to systemic financial shocks, as well as possible food and water crises.

WEF's Risk Response Network, and its four partners (Marsh & McLennan, Swiss Reinsurance, Wharton Center for Risk Management and Zurich Financial Services) concluded that there were three distinct 'constellations' of risk that present a "very serious threat to our future prosperity and security".

The first, entitled 'Seeds of dystopia', is the risk associated with a world where a large youth population contends with chronic levels of unemployment while a large population of retirees becomes increasingly dependent on heavily indebted governments.

The second constellation of risk, entitled ' How safe are our safeguards?', is linked to a diminishing capacity to manage the systems that underpin our prosperity and safety.

Third, entitled 'The dark side of connectivity', reflects fears of an increase in virtual crime, with daily life becoming more vulnerable to cyber threats and digital disruption.

The report will be used as the basis for further discussions at WEF's five-day Davos meeting, which commences on January 25.