London: The G-20 Finance Ministers have pledged to maintain the stimulus packages until the global economy is fully back on track and committed to work out an "ambitious outcome" at the UN climate change summit next month.
In a communique at the end of the two-day conclave at St
Andrews in Scotland the G20 ministers said: "The recovery is
uneven and remains dependent on policy support. High
unemployment is a major concern.
"To restore the global economy and financial system to
health, we agreed to maintain support for the recovery until
it is assured."
The communique said they wanted an "ambitious outcome" at
December's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, but there
was no agreement on a climate finance figure.
"We committed to take action to tackle the threat of
climate change and work towards an ambitious outcome in
Copenhagen," the Communique said.
However, no agreement was made on financing options, nor
on how much individual countries would contribute.
Britain's Chancellor of Exchequer Alistair Darling
admitted that "while there are signs of improvement, we are
not out of the woods yet.
"Although work is being done on the exit strategy, there
is no one that believes the job is yet done."
The US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said most of the
"financial fire" had now been put out, and the global economy
was forecast to grow by 3 per cent next year. He said,
however, risks remained.
"This is still a very tough economy. If we put the brakes
on too quickly the costs will be greater," he said.
The International Monetary Fund said emergency stimulus
measures needed to remain to avoid endangering a "nascent"
financial recovery.
"An overarching risk is that the recovery stalls" owing
to early exits from record-low interest rates and massive
state cash injections, the IMF said in a report at the summit.
In an unprecedented move, the finance ministers agreed to
put forward their economic growth plans to be assessed by the
G-20, with assistance from the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank.
Plans would be evaluated to see whether individual
countries were working in line with global objectives for
sustainable and balanced growth of the G-20 leaders' summit in
Pittsburgh at the end of September.
Darling said, "We agreed to put in place mechanisms to
monitor what is happening in other parts of the world. The IMF
will look for problems that may be developing (in the context
of the global economy) which could be headed off.
"This is a new approach to economic co-operation and a
major step. We have agreed to take dramatic action to ensure
we have growth in the future. St Andrews was the third and
final meeting of the G20 finance ministers, and will form the
agenda for the G20 in 2010."
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, November 08, 2009, 18:06