G20 - summit summary

Summit promises growth, as thousands demonstrate

Article published on the 2009-09-26 Latest update 2009-09-26 11:17 TU

Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy et Gordon Brown at the G20 in Pittsburgh
(Photo: AFP)

The G20 summit in Pittsburgh promised to work for "strong, sustainable, and balanced growth" at the end of a two-day meeting. Critics of world leaders demonstrated peacefully, with no repetition of Thursdays nights fighting between anarchists and police.

Police estimated that 4,500 people joined a summit end demonstration through the city on Friday. Organisers insisted there were twice that number.

The G20 "declared victory in their struggle against the global recession," comments RFI's Brent Gregston in Pittsburgh. "Sustaining economic recovery will now be at the top of their agenda."

Meeting during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the Pittsburgh summit agreed a final statement, which promised growth to the world? But it did not iron over all disagreements between different countries.

"Going forward, we cannot tolerate the same old boom and bust economy of the past," said US President Barack Obama after the meeting.

Earlier he had blamed Germany and China, who are the world's biggest exporters, for exporting more than they import.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel responded by criticising "protectionist tendencies" in a veiled reference to US trade policy. China's President Hu Jintao said that the "yawning development gap" is the "root cause" of trade imbalances.

The summit's main decisions and recommendations included:

• A Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth will co-ordinate fiscal, monetary, trade, and structural policies, with  advice and analysis from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF);
• The G20's Financial Stability Board will propose measures to curb "excessive" bank bosses' bonuses and improve transparency in the sector;
• Governments should eliminate tax havens by March 2010;
• Rules to improve the quantity and quality of bank capital, to be implemented by the end of 2012;
• Finding the right time to ease stimulus measures taken to rescue economies from the economic crisis, with finance ministers meeting in November;
• The G20 will replace the G8, giving more say to developing nations, but not on global security.

The Summit statement revealed that the IMF has predicted a stonger recovery than earlier predicted, witth global growth approaching three per cent in 2010.