A meeting of Group of Seven finance chiefs on Friday will discuss the struggling world economy and progress in regulating the financial sector but a coordinated action plan to calm markets is unlikely. Delegates at the one-day gathering in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille will seek to emphasse their commitment to preserving the fragile global recovery while avoiding promoting a one-size-fits-all approach, G7 sources say. Host country France is expected to indicate that different responses are appropriate in different countries to the latest crisis of confidence rocking world markets. “This is not a G7 where we are expecting to prepare a formal communique,” a French source said. “We are sticking to the blueprint of recent G7 meetings, which have been informal ones.”
SENSE OF URGENCY:
Fears the global economy may have entered its most difficult period since the collapse of Lehman Brothers has injected urgency into Friday’s talks but the sense of purpose evident in 2008 and 2009 is not yet evident. While Europe wants to keep its commitment to austerity, the United States is closer to the International Monetary Fund’s position that fiscal stimulus is needed. With Asian economies deeply concerned about the West’s debt crisis and slow growth, Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Wednesday euro zone debt would be high on the G7 agenda. “I presume Europe’s sovereign problems will have a prominent place on the G7 agenda,” Shirakawa said, noting the whole world was at risk if Europe’s debt woes destabilise its banks.
