WORLD> Europe
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WORLD> Europe
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G7 rejects protectionism, urges measures to back growth
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-15 15:51 In their final agreement, the finance ministers highlighted that "the stabilization of the global economy and financial markets remains our highest priority," adding that the world's seven industrialized countries have already "collectively taken exceptional measures" to tackle the economic downturn. The World Bank looks with unease at the current situation and at the contradictory statements issued from the Rome meeting. World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who also attended the meeting, said that national bailouts would only worsen the global crisis, not resolve it. "In this moment, economic nationalism is neither economic nor nationalistic," Zoellick said, adding "what might be politically correct might be economically incorrect." "The pull of national politics is very sharp but it's clear that the issues we are dealing with don't stop at national borders," the World Bank president said. The future looks even grimmer. Fresh data from Europe on Friday showed the scale of the economic downturn and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, said the worst had probably still to come. In the last quarter of 2008, economic output in the euro zone shrank more than any quarter on record and the picture was much the same in the 27 countries of the European Union. All of the large G7 economies contracted in the last quarter of 2008 and even rising stars such as China are slowing down. The leading industrialized countries promised to write within four months financial regulations with common principles of transparency, in time for July's G8 summit in Sardinia, Italy. The outcome of Saturday's Rome meeting will first influence, however, the next important meeting taking place on April 2 in London, where the G20 leaders (the G7 nations plus the world's most important developing economies like China and India) will meet to further the talks regarding the international financial outlook.
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