
The leaders papered over divisions between the US and Europe about whether the world could afford a new fiscal stimulus.President Barack Obama described the summit’s measures as “bolder and more rapid than any international response that we’ve seen to a financial crisis in memory” and predicted that they would mark “a turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery”.Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, said that agreement on a new regulatory regime and crackdown on tax havens showed that “a page has been turned” on an era of post-war “Anglo- Saxon” capitalism.The summit ended with smiles as a dispute between China and France over the blacklisting of tax havens-including possibly Hong Kong and Macao-continued behind the scenes.US officials say that Mr Obama helped broker a compromise between Hu Jintao of China and Mr Sarkozy, who had threatened to walk away from the summit.Mr Sarkozy had objected to the absence of agreement to publish a list of offshore tax centres that were not in compliance with existing standards on transparency. In the end they agreed the G20 would only “take note” of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development list, rather than endorse it.Mr Brown claimed that China had agreed a $40bn contribution to IMF funds. Chinese authorities could not confirm that last night. The IMF declined to comment.The summit text included commitments to curb “risky” bank pay and bonuses, but offered little new on monetary policy action or efforts to clean up bank balance sheets.Of the $500bn of money pledged to the IMF to bolster struggling economies, some had already been announced and $250bn was a pledge of future funds.The G20 agreed to allow the IMF to create $250bn of Special Drawing Rights, its own currency, comprising dollars, euros, yen and sterling, boosting the foreign exchange reserves of every country. Most of this will go to the big economies, but poorer countries facing budgetary strains will gain new cash.World leaders also agreed to boost trade finance in a package that Mr Brown said over two years could facilitate an additional $250bn of trade.
Additional reporting by David Oakley
By George Parker, Chris Giles and Edward Luce in London http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/082652de-1fb0-11de-a1df-00144feabdc0.html
As in the days of Noah...