(St Petersburg) – G-20 leaders have warned that global economic recovery is too weak, with the risk of a further slowdown and some emerging markets showing particular fragility. They backed a “St Petersburg action plan” to boost growth and employment.
In a reference to concerns by emerging markets about the tapering of stimulus programmes, G-20 leaders have vowed that future changes to monetary policy settings will be “carefully calibrated and clearly communicated”. “Despite our actions, the recovery is too weak, and risks remain tilted to the downside,” the leaders said in their final communique after their two-day meeting in St Petersburg shadowed by the Syria crisis.
“Global growth prospects for 2013 have been marked down repeatedly over the last year, global rebalancing is incomplete, regional growth disparities remain wide, and unemployment, particularly among youth, remains unacceptably high,” the statement said.
While there are signs of recovery in the euro area and growth has continued in emerging market economies, it has slowed down in developing countries, it added. The statement appeared to recognise the need for central banks such as the US Federal Reserve eventually to end their monetary easing policies.
