Nigel Sheinwald

G20 in Pittsburgh

This week, G20 leaders meet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for their third summit since the global financial and economic crisis erupted last fall.

This will be a different sort of summit from the meeting in London in April. The world economy is showing the first signs of recovery.  Although it remains fragile, the crisis atmosphere seems to have abated. But, as my Prime Minister has made very clear,  "now is not the time to lose our focus"; nothing can be taken for granted and policymakers must not shirk from the challenges.

So as part of this it will important for leaders to review implementation of the commitments they made in April, including the establishment of the new, more inclusive Financial Stability Board to provide better oversight of financial regulation and supervision and more than $250bn in new bilateral funding for the IMF.

But it will be more than just a stocktaking exercise. President Obama's recent remarks on the forthcoming summit - that "all of us must remember that our work is far from complete" - is a salutary reminder of the profound economic challenges still facing our economies.

There will be much ground to cover but a few key strands are emerging. Can G20 leaders work together towards a new compact for global growth? Can we promote a sustained recovery, including identifying and supporting future sources of growth? How do we best demonstrate that the G20 will continue to take concrete action to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the poorest countries? And how does this process help us to address the acute issue of climate change?

None of these questions is straightforward. But leaders will need to find the answers. I will be in Pittsburgh on Thursday with the Prime Minister; I'll let you know how they all get on.

Posted at 16:27 21 September 2009 by Nigel Sheinwald  |  Comments[2]