IMF's Lagarde warns G20 to avoid 'low-growth trap'
Source: AFP
September 1, 2016
Washington (AFP) - The head of the International Monetary Fund on Thursday called on global leaders to take "forceful" action to revive the world economy, sounding a stark warning ahead of this weekend's G20 summit.
Christine Lagarde, the IMF managing director, said that as of 2016, global economic growth had stagnated for five years below the 3.7 percent average that prevailed between 1990 and 2007.
"Not since the early 1990s...has the world economy been so weak for such a long time," Lagarde said in a statement issued to coincide with the start of the summit.
With member states representing 85 percent of the world's GDP, the Group of 20 summit is due to convene in Hangzhou, China beginning Sunday amid a climate of sluggish growth and uncertainty.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/imfs-lagarde-warns-g20-avoid-low-growth-trap-141646694.html
elleng
(130,126 posts)GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. Central bankers who gathered here to discuss better ways of jump-starting slow economic growth received a surprising message from their lunchtime speaker on Friday: Stop. Youre making things worse.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/111678852
And everybody says, "Bigger deficits."
We'll go over $500 billion this year in the US.
A decade ago smaller deficits were going to kill us, DUers said. We'd never get the economy moving again until we brought under control deficit spending. It was bad. Corrupting. The President campaigned on exactly how unsustainable deficits of $300 billion/year were and promised to dispose of them. Now we're glad when they get that small and boast of austerity (or decry it), and declare such deficits to be eminently sustainable.
What a difference check-signing ability makes.
Mostly what's bothersome is the tacit volta-face people have made while claiming complete consistency, counting on a wilful lack of memory in the service of political pragmatics.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,144 posts)and, given the environmental problems associated with consumption, that may be no bad thing. The thing to concentrate on is a more equitable distribution.