WASHINGTON – The world’s top finance officials said Saturday the global economy is recovering, and they hope well-run economic programs will avoid the risks that threaten that rebound.
The 188-nation International Monetary Fund concluded weekend meetings with pledges to work toward faster growth that will alleviate still-high unemployment.
Managing Director Christine Lagarde told reporters the world had gone through a lengthy economic “disaster” and now was moving through a period of strengthening growth.
“Creating a more dynamic, sustainable, balanced and job-rich global economy remains our paramount collective goal,” the IMF’s policy committee said in a statement.
The United States came in for criticism in that statement. It said officials were “deeply disappointed” with the continued delay in congressional approval of the legislation to provide expanded loan resources to the IMF to help countries in trouble.
The IMF said if Congress failed to pass the measure by year’s end, it would explore other options.
But officials said those options could weaken America’s ability to influence the global economy and lead to a more fragmented world.
Singapore’s finance minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, chairman of the IMF committee, said a U.S. failure to act could cause a “disruption to the multilateral system” and make the world less safe.
The IMF panel endorsed the target set by the Group of 20 nations to boost global growth by $2 trillion in the next five years. But the IMF said achieving this result will require putting the proper government policies in place, including continued efforts by major central banks to keep interest rates low to boost growth.
In the G-20’s statement Friday, after two days of talks, officials pledged to keep working on economic reforms that could increase growth by 2 percent over the next five years. But they acknowledged the political difficulty in the changes needed to reach that goal.
“We remain vigilant in the face of important global risks and vulnerabilities,” the statement said. “We are determined to manage these risks and take action to further strengthen the recovery, create jobs and improve medium-term growth prospects.”
Australia’s treasurer, Joe Hockey, said officials know hard decisions await regarding overhauling labor market policies and dealing with budget deficits.
