(Nov 7): Widening income disparities and jobless growth head the top 10 challenges facing the global economy next year, according to the World Economic Forum.

Increasing geopolitical and environmental strains, as well as severe weather and lack of water resources, were also listed by the Geneva-based forum, which runs the annual conference of policy makers, executives and bankers in Davos, Switzerland. A lack of direction from international leaders to tackle cross- border threats will hinder solutions, the forum said.

“The global leadership crisis is a trend which cuts across all the other issues,” said Martina Larkin, a senior director at the WEF. “The danger is that instead of innovating and collaborating to tackle shared challenges, nations and leaders will seek answers through isolationism, nationalist rhetoric and the old paradigms of geopolitical power play.”

Stagnating wages will contribute to a “vicious cycle” of inequality through suppressed growth and job prospects, it said. Growing competition between countries and intensifying nationalism suggests the potential for the fragmentation of international politics and a backlash against globalization, according to the forum.

The trends are based on a survey of almost 1,800 officials from the forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils, as well as other communities within the WEF, about what they think will preoccupy international leaders over the next 12-18 months.