The global financial crisis may have "extremely serious" consequences – including famines – in developing countries in Africa and Latin America, the IMF said on Monday.

International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said its World Economic Outlook to be published on Wednesday would show a marked fall in growth.

"The consequences country by country depend on the strucuture of their economies," he told reporters at a conference of European and Latin American officials in Paris.

"The consequences may be extremely serious because they will be counted in terms of famine or malnutrition in children," he warned.

The IMF's number two official last month said the organisation was likely to predict in its World Economic Outlook that global growth would slip to three percent late this year, down from five percent in 2007.

He said it could climb back toward four percent in the course of 2009.

Reports in late August said the IMF had dropped its world growth projections for 2008 to 3.9 percent from 4.1 percent, and to 3.7 percent from 3.9 percent for 2009.

AFP