Slowdown to hit poor hardest: WB

World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said there would be a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the developing world this year, putting more poor people at risk, and the G20 must not shrink from combining ideas and actions to restore confidence in the world economy.

Speaking at a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker in London, Zoellick said many of the immediate challenges of the crisis could be addressed if the Group of 20 reformed and empowered existing international institutions to help resist protectionism, evaluate the effectiveness of stimulus packages, and monitor banking reforms.

"This is not a moment for complacency. It is not a day for expressing false confidence that all has been done that can be done. It is not a time for narrow nationalist or even regional responses. The one certitude we can draw from events over the past year is our inability to predict what is to come, and how it may trigger other unexpected events," Zoellick said in his speech ahead of the G20 summit in London.