Oct. 11--NEW HAVEN -- As the U.S. financial markets continue to sink and the detrimental impact spreads abroad, the world's emerging markets provide a glimmer of hope against an otherwise dreary backdrop, according a global economist from Goldman Sachs who visited the city Friday.

"The world is shifting, and the center of gravity is shifting very quickly," said Peter Berezin, vice president and global economist at Wall Street financial firm Goldman Sachs.

Over the next several decades, powerful economies like those of the United States and the United Kingdom -- which have been hit hard in the current financial crisis -- will "be much less important than they are now" as emerging economies become stronger, he said.

Berezin was the keynote speaker Friday at the 2008 Conference on Trends in Global Business at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale.

The three-day event, which began Thursday and ends today, is held by the Quinnipiac University School of Business and co-sponsored by the Center for International Business Education and Research at the University of Connecticut and the Journal of Comparative International Management.

Berezin spoke before a crowd of about 50 on a day when the U.S. financial markets continued to reel. The Dow Jones industrial plunged as much as nearly 700 points before settling down 128, capping off another volatile week on Wall Street.

"Clearly, this is a difficult time for the U.S. and the global economy," Berezin said. "But it is important to keep things in perspective. These sort of fears come and go."

Comparisons of the current economy to that of the Great Depression are premature, he said. "The government, and governments globally are doing a heck of a lot to try to stimulate the markets," he said, though he acknowledged the current situation will lead to "a nasty recession."

"The U.S. is no longer alone in experiencing this economic contraction," he said, but eventually markets will rebound and economies will stabilize.

"It's going to be a tough recovery, but it's going to be a recovery."

While global powerhouses like the U.S. and U.K. wade through turmoil spurred in large part by "dubious" mortgage lending practices, emerging countries -- such as Brazil, Russia, India and China -- remain fundamentally sound, Berezin said.

"The fundamentals in the emerging markets remain strong. I don't think that's going to change," he said, adding that those nations and other emerging markets like Malaysia are poised for continued growth in the future.

Some emerging markets are stronger than others. Singapore and Hong Kong, for example, are better positioned than nations like Saudia Arabia and South Africa, according to Berezin.

A country's education system, which prepares students for the work force, is a key driver of its growth potential, he said.

It is a lengthy process, but the global economy has begun to "rebalance," shifting the roles countries have played in the past, he said.

An international audience attended the Trends in Global Business conference, according to organizer Mohammad Elahee, an associate professor of international business at Quinnipiac.

More than 100 attendees registered for the event, including some from Jordan, France and Costa Rica, he said.

-----

To see more of New Haven Register, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nhregister.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, New Haven Register, Conn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NYSE:GS, NYSE:DJ,