While the New York-based economist did not quite live up to his apocalyptic moniker “Dr Doom” with his keynote address this morning, his assessment of the strength of the global economy in the near-term was grim.

He said the economy had moved closer to the end of the current crisis and closer to the bottom, but the “optimists are still too optimistic”

Yesterday the economist said he was “more bearish” than the consensus economic view on when economic growth would recover and the shape of that recovery, which he said would be “anaemic”

Roubini also warned that the rallies in equities and markets had been “too much, too soon”, even in commodities – but longer term, he believed growth would restart and prices would increase.

“I’m bearish about the economy in the short term … but the macro-economics of emerging economies are much stronger,” he said.

“In relative terms I believe growth is going to be stronger in advanced economies ... this will be bullish for commodities.”

However, while Roubini said he expected commodity prices to increase as the economy recovered and emerging markets grew, he warned there was downside risk for China, which was not enough by itself to drive a recovery in the world’s economy.

“Some of the recent rally [in commodity prices] has been led by the growth of China … restocking of inventories and long-term building of inventories,” he said.

“If China has an overcapacity problem it is not obvious that China restocking is going to continue so there is downside risk on that side.”

Additionally, Roubini said that even with strong growth in emerging recoveries, consumptions in these economies still could not compare to that of the advanced economies.

He said consumption levels in China and India were still one-sixth of US consumption.

“This global economic recovery cannot depend only on China, China cannot be the engine of the global recovery,” he added.

“It is too small to compensate for the lack of consumption in the advanced economies. There has to be a recovery of advanced economies and that is not going to happen anytime soon.”

Roubini came to prominence last year as one of a handful of economic analysts to predict the current global economic crisis.

He also warned there was a risk of a relapse into a global recession in the medium term depending on the actions taken by global governments and the risks posed by massive fiscal deficits.

Another deeper recession could kick in towards the end of next year and into 2011 if governments around the world act too fast to reduce their fiscal overhang, or alternatively if markets panic at the amount of public debt, which could see inflation become a major issue.

Roubini said he believed deflationary pressures were more of a risk in the short-term, however.

The global economy could be at risk from a commodity price shock, such as the swinging oil price, which Roubini said was clearly being driven by speculation as much as fundamental demand.

He said these price swings were “destabilising” for the global economy.