Sobering Numbers

The FPD Forum opened to a packed auditorium this morning - all the seats were filled in the main auditorium, and I heard that the overflow rooms were left with standing room only. Probably the star power of the keynote speaker Nassim Taleb was the reason that so many World Bank staff showed up promptly at 9am. Michael Klein, the Vice President of Financial and Private Sector Development, provided some sobering numbers in his welcoming remarks. Most sobering of all - corporations in emerging markets face a requirement of rolling over somewhere between $1.25 and $2 trillion in foreign exchange exposure in 2009. It's not clear where that financing will come from.