LINDAU, Germany - The global economy is at great risk of a double-dip recession as the major economies tighten their fiscal spending to fight the debt crisis, instead of creating jobs and boosting growth, said Nobel economics laureates.

Professor Peter Diamond, a 2010 Nobel laureate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, said there was "a general risk" that the global economy would experience a double-dip, though he could not predict when.

Diamond said his conclusion was based on two factors - the European sovereign debt problem and the fact that too many governments have focused too much on the debt crisis, instead of unemployment.