DAR ES SALAAM, March 11 (Reuters) - The world's advanced economies are moving too slowly in ridding banks of problem assets, which could jeopardize a global economic recovery in 2010, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
The warning by IMF' Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn comes as the Fund now believes the global economy will be gripped by a "Great Recession" in 2009 and will contract.
"On the (bank) restructuring side things are really lagging," Strauss-Kahn said in an interview with Reuters. "I'm afraid that if it goes that way for two or three more months then recovery in 2010 will be difficult," he added.
In January, the IMF said world growth will come to a virtual standstill this year at 0.5 percent but Strauss-Kahn said just over a month later the IMF had to cut that forecast following worse-than-expected fourth-quarter data. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)