France-"The Great Recession" according to the head of IMF.

PARIS — The global economy will shrink this year as the world enters "a Great Recession," the head of the International Monetary Fund said yesteday.

Speaking in a taped interview with French television channel France 24, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said economic data has worsened since January, when the IMF forecast global growth in gross domestic product of 0.5 percent this year.

"Since then the news hasn’t been good," Strauss-Kahn said. "I think that we can now say that we’ve entered a Great Recession."

Strauss-Kahn didn’t make a precise forecast for global economic decline this year. "This recession can last a long time," Strauss-Kahn added, "unless the policies we’re expecting are put in place, in which case 2010 can be a year of return to growth."

The World Bank said Sunday that the global economy will shrink this year for the first time since World War II and that the global financial crisis will make it tougher for poor and developing nations to access needed financing.

In Europe, the European Central Bank has forecast a 2.2-3.2 percent fall and in gross domestic product over 2009 in the 16 countries that share the euro.

In related news, European Union finance ministers agreed yesterday to urge governments to double the International Monetary Fund’s resources to US$500 billion and give it a key role overseeing risks to the global economy. They also pledged to start reducing their budget deficits by 2011 at the latest to try and stabilize their economies — although they warned that it is hard to count on a turnaround next year because the financial crisis could still slow the economy down.

EU heads of state and government were expected to back the call for more IMF money at a March 19-20 summit.