APEC leaders will maintain hefty stimulus packages until they secure a “durable” recovery from the global economic slowdown, a draft communique said yesterday.
“We will maintain our economic stimulus policies until a durable economic recovery is secured,” the draft said, stressing that “economic recovery is not yet on a solid footing.”
Leaders of the 21-member APEC forum, including the US and China, will meet in Singapore next Saturday and Sunday to discuss global economic recovery, environmental issues and free trade.
The administration of US President Barack Obama — who will attend APEC — implemented a US$787 billion Recovery Act in February which the White House says has saved or created nearly 650,000 jobs, and likely more than 1 million.
Analysts say that massive stimulus packages rolled out by Asian governments played an important role in helping the region weather the downturn better than the US or Europe.
The Asian packages totaled more than US$1 trillion, according to a tally by Standard and Poor’s, led by US$585 billion in spending by China.
The APEC summit’s host, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), said this week that winding down the stimulus packages to make way for growth led by the private sector should be managed carefully.
“How exactly it has to be phased out ... and how you balance the risks of withdrawing too quickly and administering too much adrenalin, that is something which will have to be discussed by the finance ministers and the central banks and calibrated as we go along,” he said.
Asia-Pacific leaders also plan to call for sweeping cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the draft communique said.
“We believe that global emissions will need to peak over the next few years, and be reduced to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, recognizing that the time frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries,” the draft said.
Next week’s summit will come ahead of crucial world climate talks in Copenhagen next month.
The leaders are expected to reaffirm their commitment to reaching a “good agreement in Copenhagen to enable the full, effective and sustainable implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” the draft said.
“Human-induced climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world,” it said.
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