Global economy faces 'uncertain future'

The global economy faces an uneven recovery, with sluggish growth in Europe and an uncertain outlook for the US, according to the head of the International Monetary Fund.

"The bad news is coming from Europe where the recovery is really sluggish and where growth is the main problem to face. Then, there is the United States," IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at a event. "What's happening in the United States is very uncertain."

The IMF is deeply involved with the European Union in efforts to stabilise the debt-stricken economies in Greece and Ireland and ward off a rolling crisis of investor confidence that threatens to embroil other European economies and bond markets.

Strauss-Kahn expressed confidence that efforts to get Ireland's economy on a sounder footing through a rescue package will be successful.

Strauss-Kahn has pushed European leaders to expand their policy efforts to cope with the eurozone's debt crisis, notably in a speech earlier this month when he warned that all the effects of the global financial crisis were still in play.

He repeated that Europeans need to step up with a coordinated response to the debt crisis they face and said the resources to do so were available if they have the will.

The IMF chief also expressed confidence that the euro currency would survive the crisis.

"It's a strong currency which behaved during the last ten years better than even the Deutsche Mark in the previous decade," he said. "I see many reasons why there may be a problem in the eurozone in terms of growth, unemployment, even, beyond unemployment, social problems - but that doesn't mean at all that I see any threat to the euro."