Finance ministers from the world’s largest economies said Friday they are determined to prevent a slide into another global recession, but a top U.S. official expressed frustration that a number of major economies were not doing enough to bolster growth.
After two days of discussions, finance officials from the Group of 20 nations unveiled plans for a global initiative to build roads and other infrastructure projects to help boost world growth by $2 trillion over the next five years and create millions of jobs.
But officials conceded that this longer-run effort will not help with the pressing problems of weak growth in Europe and a number of other parts of the world. And U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew complained that governments in Europe, Japan and China were failing to deliver needed support.
“European leaders should focus on recalibrating policies to address persistent demand weaknesses,” Lew said in comments prepared for a session of the policy-setting committee of the International Monetary Fund.
Weak reports on industrial production and trade out of Germany, Europe’s largest economy, jolted financial markets and raised worries that Europe could be headed for another recession. U.S. stocks endured their worst week since May 2012 with the losses continuing Friday.
