The world economy is in malaise, growth will remain sluggish and the goal of halving extreme poverty by 2005 are unlikely to be met, according to a UN report.
A negative picture of the global economy - with too many workers chasing too few jobs and too many goods chasing too few buyers - was made by the Trade and Development Report 2003.
It warned of inevitable adverse consequences for "even the most resilient" developing countries and accepted there was a growing consensus the Millennium Development Goals of halving extreme poverty by 2015 would be impossible to meet.
"The long-anticipated rebound in the United States continues to be delayed and there are concerns that imbalances and excesses ... could result in a long period of erratic and sluggish growth."
The UN Conference of Trade and Development report notes that, in spite of the sizeable interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, US investment has still not recovered as expected and the labour market is in "its worst shape for some time".
Meanwhile, Europe is set to repeat a disappointing 2003 growth rate of about 1%, largely due to weak consumption demand in all the major economies.
Japan's growth is near-zero, while Latin America has endured a "lost half decade" after the initial success of opening up of its markets to foreign investment in the 1990s.
In Africa, the global slowdown has had little effect, but continued weakness of commodity prices means little improvement will be made on the growth of previous years, the report finds.
Generally, little improvement is expected over the 1.9% growth of the world economy registered last year.
The report warns that rising global unemployment, trade imbalances and inequality risks a political backlash against globalisation.
Story filed: 17:00 Thursday 2nd October 2003