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G20 focused on economic growth
FINANCE chiefs from G20 nations held talks yesterday, confident they can “change the destiny of the global economy” despite rising political tensions and mounting fears of financial instability.
The meeting in Cairns, northeast Australia, aims to thrash out a set of policies to achieve the ambitious goal of raising the total GDP of the 20 major world economies by 2 percent over the next five years, a target they set in Sydney in February.
Finance ministers and central bank governors want to take their plan to the G20 leaders’ summit in Brisbane in November.
A source said of the discussions: “There was no talk about growth versus austerity. Now it is all about how we can grow our economies ... good progress has been made toward the 2 percent objective.”
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is chairing the meeting, said he was buoyed by the more than 900 submissions made by participating countries to meet the goal.
These involve reforms to accelerate infrastructure investment, steps to strengthen financial reform and the opening of economies to free trade.
“We are determined to make the world a better place — to grow the global economy, to create more jobs, to build the infrastructure to ensure children get better quality water, education and health care,” he said.
While political tensions in Ukraine and the Middle East have spooked some investors, Hockey said there is consensus that Russia should attend the leaders’ summit in November.
“We’ve consulted with a number of countries and the emphatic view came back that we expect Russia to attend,” he said.
Economist Andrew Kenningham said he wasn’t expecting fireworks from Cairns.
“Few analysts will be waking up early to read the communique. It’s likely to cover a lot of familiar ground,” he said.
While economic growth is a key focus of the summit, G20 nations are also expected to show progress on a common reporting standard to stop multinational companies from shifting profits to avoid tax.
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