PARIS, Jan 21: All developed countries are suffering from the slowdown in the United States putting the world economy in a serious situation, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Monday.

His comments came after world stock markets fell sharply and demand for safe-haven bonds and currencies soared on fears a slowdown in the U.S. economy would be worse than expected.

“The situation is serious,” he told reporters after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“All countries in the world are suffering from the slowdown in growth in the United States, all countries in the developed world.” He warned that emerging market growth could also be dragged down by the outlook in the United States.

“Fortunately, emerging markets continue to have strong enough growth and will continue to drive global growth. Nevertheless, it is not impossible that it may have an effect even on emerging market countries, that growth is weaker than forecast.” U.S. markets were closed on Monday for a holiday, but US stock index futures were down sharply, suggesting investors were pessimistic about the outlook for US stocks.

“It seems financial markets did not appreciate the package put forward by President Bush,” Strauss-Kahn said.—Reuters