“We… expect that the rate of growth in the global economy will begin to recover in 2010, and with the rate of growth recovering in the world economy, so too will it grow in your country,” he told reporters through a translator.

Strauss-Kahn made the comments to reporters after meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon as part of an ongoing tour of Central Asian states, many of which have been badly affected by the global financial downturn.

Tajikistan – a mountainous former Soviet republic that borders China and Afghanistan – has struggled to provide even basic services for its citizens in recent years, with blackouts the norm throughout much of last winter.

Source: AFP