G20 ministers aim for faster global growth
Print Edition
The world’s top economies may agree to set an ambitious target for faster global growth at a weekend meeting in Sydney, where major central banks are also being urged to coordinate policies to avoid “surprises” that could further roil emerging markets.
Opening the two-day meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers yesterday, Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said support was building for setting a firm goal for growth.
“I have a great sense of hope that this G20 meeting will be able to lay down a real and tangible framework for an increase in the growth of the global economy over the next five years,” said Hockey, who is hosting the Sydney gathering.
If adopted, the plan would be a departure for the G20, as previous attempts to set fiscal and current account targets have faltered.
And while Canada’s central bank chief Stephen Poloz called the goal “aspirational” and doubts remain about its implementation, it would give the group fresh focus and mark a sea change from recent meetings where the debate was all about growth versus budget austerity.
France’s finance minister, Pierre Moscovici, welcomed a goal of lifting world growth by a total of 2.5 percentage points over five years, calling it ambitious but “not unrealistic.”
A G20 source said Germany had dropped its opposition to setting an overall target, as long as there were no goals imposed for individual states. But Nhlanhla Nene, South Africa’s Deputy Finance Minister, said the target would be meaningless unless issues faced by emerging economies such as inequality, high unemployment and volatile global financial conditions were addressed.
The plan borrows wholesale from an International Monetary Fund paper prepared for the Sydney meeting which estimated that structural reforms would raise world growth by about 0.5 percentage point per year over the next five years, boosting global output by US$2.25 trillion. The IMF has forecast global growth of 3.75 percent for this year and 4 percent in 2015.
The laundry list of reforms run the usual gamut of liberalizing product and labor markets, lowering barriers to trade, attracting more owen into the workforce and boosting infrastructure investment
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