What does 'its' refer here to?

[Torsten]

Hi, can you please take a look at the following paragraph and tell me what the possessive adjective 'its' refers to?

Credit has crunched, debt has turned toxic, the gears of the world economy have ground to a halt. Yet despite its failures, the same market-driven ideas are being applied to everything from food crisis to climate change.

TOEIC short conversations: Catering employee calls customer to inform her about a delivery problem.

[Mister Micawber]

Nothing in those sentences, Torsten; I suppose that 'their' (= ideas) is meant.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Torsten]

Thanks for that, Charles. Maybe Mr Raj Patel should have considered proofreading his book before he having it print million of times ;-)

TOEIC short conversations: HR person reviews work performance of employee.

[Mister Micawber]

He was doubtless thinking of some singular concept outside the text (e.g. 'despite the market economy's failures'), but did not notice the sentence grammar. A failing of his editorial staff, I presume. Even peer review doesn't catch everything!

...Or is such a singular context mentioned in an earlier sentence? That is a possibility.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's