CAIRNS: Finance chiefs from G20 nations held talks on Saturday, confident they can “change the destiny of the global economy” despite rising world political tensions and mounting fears of financial instability.

The meeting in Cairns aims to thrash out a set of policies to achieve the ambitious goal of raising the total GDP of the 20 major world economies by two per cent over the next five years, a target they set in Sydney in February.

Finance ministers and central bank governors, including US Federal Re­­se­rve chairwoman Janet Yel­len, want to be able to take their plan to the G20 leaders’ summit in Brisbane in Nov.

A high-level G20 source said of Saturday’s discussions: “There was no longer talk about growth versus austerity. Now it is all about how we can grow our economies.

“What we found is that extremely good progress has been made towards the two per cent objective,” he added.
“Everyone supports that agenda.”

The source acknowledged that the “global picture” of economic growth was “very uneven”, but added that all members of the Group of 20 “will continue to sustain their efforts” to reach the target.

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, who is chairing the meeting, said as he opened the summit that he was buoyed by the more than 900 submissions that had been made by participating countries to meet the goal.

These involve reforms to accelerate infrastructure investment, steps to strengthen financial reform and the opening of economies to free trade.

“We are determined to make the world a better place — to grow the global economy, to create more and better paying jobs, to build the infrastructure to ensure children get better quality water, education and healthcare,” he said.

“I have no doubt that as a result of the deliberations of this meeting this weekend, followed by the leaders’ summit in Brisbane in November, that we have the opportunity to change the destiny of the global economy.”

Despite the upbeat comments, with the OECD downgrading its world growth forecasts this week amid a stalling eurozone recovery and weakening emerging economies, the task has become more complicated.

Published in Dawn, September 21th, 2014