Iraq war could stimulate global economy: Friedman

MUNICH, Germany (AFP) Apr 06, 2003
US economist Milton Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize in 1976, said the war on Iraq could stimulate, rather than weaken, the world economy, in an interview in a German news magazine.

Friedman told Focus magazine's upcoming Monday edition that the economy was actually in better shape than people thought and there was little chance of a recession.

"The war will undoubtedly stimulate the economy, which in any case is in a healthier position than many people suggest," he said.

"The chances of a worldwide recession are extremely small. I don't see why the economy shouldn't speed up when the uncertainty over the Iraq conflict has been resolved."

Friedman, an advisor to both the 1981-89 Reagan administration and Britain's former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, defended the war as protecting US freedom and status.

He slammed the United Nations as "an absurd organisation" and said that any political arguments over the rightness of the war would disappear "as soon as we are rid of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein."

Friedman's views on the economic impact of the war do not tally with those of many analysts, who fear that the conflict, combined with fears of terrorism and an outbreak of killer pneumonia, is pushing the global economy perilously close to recession.

SPACE.WIRE