Many countries would trade places with Canada over economy:

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Many countries would trade places with Canada over economy: World Bank president
Mon Jun 8, 7:32 PM
The Canadian Press Email Story IM Story Printable View
By The Canadian Press

MONTREAL - World Bank president Robert Zoellick says lots of countries around the world would like to trade places with Canada even though it did not escape the effects of the global economic downturn.

Speaking to the International Economic Forum of the Americas, Zoellick said Monday that the strength of Canada's banking system has helped it navigate the crisis better than most.

"Canada has had a fiscal policy managed in its budget pretty soundly over the years," Zoellick told PBS host Charlie Rose, who interviewed him in front of hundreds of business and political leaders during the forum's opening luncheon.

"The combination of how (the five major banks) have been run and how they've been regulated puts Canada in a much stronger position."

Zoellick's praise for Canada came as the Globe and Mail reported Monday that the World Bank is running out of cash to lend to poor countries, so it is coming to the rich nations, which control the bank, to ask for more money.

The newspaper said Zoellick would ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other legislators to loosen their purse strings as it grapples with an unprecedented demand for aid.

When Rose asked him about the report, Zoellick only answered that his two-day Canadian tour would include a Tuesday meeting in Ottawa with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Zoellick said he and Flaherty are going to sign an agreement for a sizable contribution to a trade-liquidity program.

He thanked Canada for its generous support of developing countries through its contributions to the World Bank.

Rose also asked Zoellick for his outlook on the Chinese economy.

"I think China is going to likely surprise on the upside," he said, adding that it's probably "hazardous" to make forecasts at this time.

He said China, which had the second-largest stimulus program after the United States, has been able to build large reserves.

In its first quarter, China had numbers that were slightly better than expected, a lot of which was due to government spending, he added.

I was up in Nova Scotia last week, and people are going to be hurting economically there - fisheries suffering like usual, tourism bad going to worse. But overall, Canada is better off than many nations. Canada is physically the size of the US, with 1/10th the population. Lots of resources. The rising price of oil is good for Canada.