PARIS (MNI) – The concrete objective for the upcoming summit of G20
finance ministers and central bankers in Paris will be limited to
defining the economic indicators for an analysis of global imbalances,
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Monday.
This is the first stage of an ambitious program for the entire
French presidency of the G20, with the overriding goal of creating the
conditions for “solid, balanced and sustainable growth,” the minister
explained to foreign journalists here.
Among the indicators Lagarde mentioned in her presentation were
trade and current account balances, but also growth differentials and
the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves.
An accord on a basis of data would be the first step toward the
identifying the main imbalances in the global economy, with the
“ambitious” aim of correcting them over time, she said.
“We have a year” to make progress, Lagarde said, hinting that there
would be no dramatic announcements at the press conference Saturday
after two days of working sessions.
“It’s not we who want announcements, it’s you,” she told reporters,
adding that work on the indicators could continue in coming months if
there were no agreement by Saturday.
European Central Bank Governing Council member Christian Noyer, who
also took part in the press conference, stressed that the objective of
the discussion on imbalances was not “to point the finger” at a few
countries whose deficits or surpluses are spectacular, but rather to
analyze the weaknesses of each country.
The governor of the Bank of France declined comment on the
succession to Bundesbank President Axel Weber, who announced his
imminent resignation last week. Noyer merely said he expected his
colleague to represent his central bank normally at the summit.
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