(Washington) – Finance leaders of the G-20 economies gathered to debate how best to rein in debt levels and the potential dangers from the latest round of aggressive easing of monetary policy from the world’s biggest central banks. They were also poised to demand swifter resolution to setting guidelines for financial benchmarks like the Libor interest rate in the wake of a global rate-rigging scandal. But a rethinking of the austerity push among the world’s biggest economies loomed as the biggest talking point.
Advanced economies, particularly in Europe, have undertaken sharp austerity drives in recent years to curb growing debt, but those efforts have at times damaged economies already suffering from capital flight and under-investment from the private sector.