World financial crisis termed less likely now

The probablity that international debt problems would lead to a world financial crisis has lessened, a new study said. The report by Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates said there was only a 30 percent chance debts would lead to such a crisis - and virtually no chance that the global economy was heading into another Great Depression.

However, the outlook for debt-ridden oil-producing nations worsened, because of expected large cuts in world oil prices signaled by OPEC (see Page 1).