Looking to take the first steps toward revamping a global financial system ravaged by crisis, leaders from the main industrialized and emerging economies gathered yesterday seeking common ground.
Yet the talks involving the Group of 20 leading nations faced a host of challenges to find unity from diverse perspectives of the US, EU and the main emerging nations.
European leaders have said they hope the Sao Paulo meeting will lay the groundwork for the start of reforms to be put in motion starting with a summit in Washington of G20 leaders next Saturday.
The US, in transition ahead of the inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama, has played down expectations for any major new initiatives in a crisis that began with a meltdown in the US real estate market and quickly spread to the banking system, becoming a credit crisis crippling the global economy.
The emerging nations meanwhile are arguing the crisis shows a need for wider participation in the management of the global economy beyond the Group of Seven wealthy nations.
The top emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China — want “a reorganization of the world financial system,” Brazilian Economy Minister Guido Mantega told reporters on Friday.
The G7 is no longer sufficient to address global crises such as the one rippling around the world and the G20 should be strengthened, Mantega said after a meeting with his counterparts from the other so-called BRIC countries.
Mantega, summarizing his discussions with the finance ministers from Russia, India and China, said “we have come to the conclusion that there must be a reformulation, a reorganization of the world financial system.”
Specifically, he said, the system put in place by the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement needed to be changed to take into account the greater economic importance of emerging nations.
The G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — “is not sufficient,” he said.
The emerging nations want to see the G20 — which includes the G7 and the BRIC countries plus other significant economies such as Australia, Indonesia and Turkey — reinforced and elevated to a heads-of-state and heads-of-government level, above the finance ministerial status it has.
A joint statement by the BRIC finance ministers said they would “continue to take all necessary steps to lessen the impact of the recent turmoil on economic activity, aiming to preserve medium and long-term growth.”
READINESS: According to a survey of 2,000 people, 86 percent of Swedes believe the country is worth defending in the event of a military attack Swedes are stocking up on food items in case of war, as more conflict in Europe no longer feels like a distant possibility, and authorities encourage measures to boost readiness. At a civil preparedness fair in southwest Stockholm, 71-year-old Sirkka Petrykowska said that she is taking the prospect of hostilities seriously and preparing as much as she can. “I have bought a camping stove. I have taken a course on preservation in an old-fashioned way, where you can preserve vegetables, meat and fruit that lasts for 30 years without a refrigerator,” Petrykowska said. “I’ve set aside blankets for warmth, I
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
‘ARMED CONFLICT’: At least 21 people have died in such US attacks, while experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers US forces on Friday carried out a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing four people, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. The latest strike, which Hegseth announced in a post on X, brings the number of such US attacks to at least four, leaving at least 21 people dead. An accompanying video shared by Hegseth showed a boat speeding across the waves before being engulfed in smoke and flames. “Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” the Pentagon chief wrote. He said the strike “was conducted in international waters just off the
RSS