Wolfensohn To Warn On Income

James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank, will warn finance and development ministers today that the organisations income is set to halve over the next 10 years, limiting its ability to help poor countries and deal with emergencies. He will give his warning at a restricted lunchtime session of the so-called development committee, which gives ministerial guidance to the boards of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This forms part of the institutions annual spring meetings in Washington.

He will tell ministers the Banks income is on course to drop by 50 per cent between fiscal year 1996 and fiscal year 2005. In fiscal year 1996 the Bank earned income of around $7.9 billion (