Source/Full Story: MarketWatch

Finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s most powerful industrialized and developing countries agreed Saturday to deliver the remainder of a $5 trillion global fiscal stimulus while outlining a compromise on efforts to rein in pay for bankers and toughen oversight of the financial sector.

“Financial markets are stabilizing and the global economy is improving, but we remain cautious about the outlook for growth and jobs,” the officials said in a joint statement following a two-day meeting called to lay the groundwork for a summit meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 nations later this month.

Ahead of the meeting, French and German officials had called for a more in-depth discussion of strategies for unwinding stimulus measures. U.S. and British officials argued that the fragility of the recovery made it more necessary to focus on ensuring emergency support measures remain in place until growth solidly returns.

In the end, G20 officials said the need remained for the “swift and full implementation” of pledges on fiscal and monetary stimulus delivered by G20 leaders earlier this year. But they also said they recognized the need to draw up a “transparent and credible process” for withdrawing the stimulus once a recovery is secured. Read the G20 economic statement.

In a separate statement, G20 ministers offered a broad framework to rein in the banking sector seen at the heart of the global financial crisis that exacerbated the deepest global economic downturn since World War II. Read the G20 banking statement.

Technorati Tags: G20

Related Items