Saturday April 25, 03:17 PM
IMF, World Bank meet as signs of recovery seen
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Top IMF and World Bank officials opened annual meetings Saturday challenged to deliver on commitments by member countries to combat the worst global slump since the 1930s.
Dominating the agenda of the two-day meetings at the Washington-based multilateral institutions were ambitious pledges made by leaders of the Group of 20 developed and developing countries three weeks ago to boost stimulus measures and undertake financial regulatory reform.
A banking crisis that started in the United States in mid-2007 has spread like wildfire to push the world deep into a recession which the International Monetary Fund said earlier this week would see the global economy contract 1.3 percent this year.
The IMF forecast marked a dramatic downgrade of previous estimates and set the tone for the meetings of the top steering committees of the 185-member IMF and World Bank.
But on Friday, the Group of Seven major economies said the worst might finally be over -- although the outlook remained clouded and difficult.
"Recent data suggest that the pace of decline in our economies has slowed and some signs of stabilization are emerging," a G7 statement said.
"Economic activity should begin to recover later this year amid a continued weak outlook and downside risks persist."
The G7 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- said they were "committed to act together to restore jobs and growth and to prevent a crisis of this magnitude from occurring again."
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the G7 host, said that "without underestimating the challenges we still face, there are signs that the pace of deterioration in economic activity and trade flows has eased."
He too cautioned against any simple optimism that the worst global slump since the 1930s would be over quickly.
"We are right to be somewhat encouraged but we would be wrong to conclude that we are close to emerging from the darkness that descended on the global economy (in September)," he said in a statement.
Security (SECURITY.SN - news) was tight around the institutions' headquarters in the US capital, where several protest demonstrations were scheduled. A helicopter hovered above a group of about 40 black-shirted protesters assembled early Saturday.
US activists Friday vowed to disrupt the talks and try to shut them down.
Global Justice Action called on activists "to blockade delegates" and "strategically occupy space" during the Saturday and Sunday talks.
The aim was "to send a clear message to the architects of the globalized economy: 'Capitalism isn't in crisis ... Capitalism is the crisis,'" a statement said.
"The policy makers who have led us into a global recession culminating in mass unemployment, homelessness and food shortages should not be allowed to nurse their institutions back to health at the taxpayers' expense."
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