The British chancellor of the exchequer said yesterday that international complacency risked plunging the world economy into a double-dip recession, in a stark message ahead of a G20 finance ministers’ meeting.
Chancellor Alistair Darling said governments must carry on spending to ensure the global economy returns to sustainable growth next year, after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
“My view is that the biggest single risk to recovery is that people think the job is done,” Darling said in an interview with the Independent.
“There is a real risk that either governments or people generally think ‘We have done that, we are on the path to recovery,’” he told the newspaper.
Removing government stimulus packages is expected to be on the agenda when G20 finance ministers meet in London from today, ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit in Pittsburgh later this month.
With Japan, France and Germany officially out of recession, minds are turning to coordinating the withdrawal of packages and government bailouts for banks — although with caution.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned this week that while the G20 largest economies must show willingness to work together on the removal of fiscal and monetary stimulus, it was too early to embark on exit strategies.
Ahead of the G20 meet, France is also leading calls for a coordinated crackdown on bankers’ bonuses, blamed for excessive risk-taking in the financial sector, including for a mandatory cap.
Darling said he was wary of anything that amounted to a “global pay policy” but saw “no problem” with the French plans to claw back bonuses after three or four years if they were not justified by performance.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report
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