The World Bank warned Wednesday that the global economy could return to the dark days of the 2008 crisis, as trends of slowing growth and rising commodity prices continue.

After the recession in 2009 and the 2010 rebound, the multilateral lender said, 2011 is expected to be a year of deceleration.

In its latest Global Economic Prospects report, the bank set global growth expectations at 3.3 percent this year, following a 3.9 percent rate in 2010.

Emerging and developing countries were expected to expand by 6 percent, down from a 7 percent pace in 2010, the bank said. This is still more than double the sluggish 2.4 percent rate expected from the developing world, down from 2.8 percent in 2010.

This pace of growth would simply be too weak to give the recovery solid traction. The bank said, "Unfortunately these growth rates are unlikely to be fast enough to eliminate unemployment and slack in the hardest-hit economies and economic sectors."

In addition, "serious tensions and pitfalls persist in the global economy, which in the short run could derail the recovery to differing degrees," it warned.

Threats that could derail the recovery include the eurozone financial market crisis, volatile capital flows and the rising prices of commodities, including food and fuel, the 187-nation institution said.

The bank was principally concerned with rising commodity prices, including food and fuel, which have been driven ever upwards by loose monetary policies in the developed countries and solid demand in the emerging economies.

"Although real food prices in most developing countries have not increased as much as those measured in US dollars, they have risen sharply in some poor countries," the World Bank said. "And if international prices continue to rise, affordability issues and poverty impacts could intensify."

"We are very concerned about the rise in food prices. We see some similarities with the situation in 2008, just before the financial crisis," said Hans Timmer, the bank's director of development prospects.

The World Bank also said Thursday that China has plenty of room for further interest rate hikes as the country battles to tame inflation, but warned anxious policymakers not to overreact to rising prices.

"There's a lot of scope for increasing interest rates further," said Ardo Hansson, the bank's chief economist for China.

After cutting rates by 200 base points during the global crisis, China has raised its key lending and deposit rates by just 50 base points each since October, leaving room for a "couple of increases" this year, Hansson said.

However, he warned Beijing should be "prudent and careful not to overreact" when tightening monetary policy to avoid slowing the economy too quickly.

People's Daily