Delivering the 2009 Bundesbank Lecture in Berlin on 4 September, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said continued action was necessary even as the global economy appears to be emerging from "the worst financial and economic crisis in the post-war period".

Recovery will be slow and high unemployment remains a risk, he said, and its economic costs "will persist even as financial markets and output stabilises".

Policymakers should err on the side of