Strauss CEO: Economic crisis over within a year

Optimistic views are being increasingly voiced regarding the end of the economic crisis. Last night Strauss Group Ltd. (TASE:STRS) outgoing president and CEO Erez Vigodman told the CFO Forum - The Israeli Forum of Chief Financial Officers that he believed the crisis will be over by next year.

He said, "For the crisis to end, two conditions must be met. Firstly, there has to be a stabilizing of the financial markets and a solution to the credit crunch. Second, bad news will have to stop coming out of the financial sector."

Vigodman does not believe that the crisis will change the balance of power in the world. He said, "The processes that resulted in the crisis have been changing the world for 25 years. It might have been possible to prevent part of the crisis but that would have demanded a certain type of leadership and a lot of power. But the crisis will end, and the same forces that operated in the world and led to the crisis will continue to operate."

Among the forces that will influence the world economy, Vigodman stressed demographic changes, changing the economic focus to emerging markets, technological development, growing pressure on company owners, shortages of natural resources and a change in markets generally.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 18, 2009

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