UK wants G-20 to pledge $2 trillion stimulus package
28 Mar 2009
Britain may ask G-20 leaders to pledge up to $2 trillion (1.4 trillion pounds) in stimulus when they meet in London on 2 April, German magazine Der Spiegel reported. This would boost growth by 2 percentage points and employment by 19 million, a draft proposal said.
The magazine also said the $2 trillion was only a proposal by G-20 president Britain and that it has not been approved by the broader group.
Britain was also pushing the G-20 to come up with a concrete target for global growth in 2010, although no specific goal was included in the draft, the magazine reported.
UK's draft proposal came just days before the G-20 summit on the global economic crisis, in London.
British prime minister Gordon Brown said he expects world leaders to do "whatever it takes" to create growth and jobs when they come together.
Brown, in a joint communique with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, also urged world leaders to shun protectionism and act to overcome the global crisis.
Brown and Bachelet held talks in the Chilean coastal resort of Vina del Mar. They also discussed the role of states in the economic crisis and solutions that protect the poor and the environment.
"One of the messages that must come from next week's summit is that we will reject protectionist tendencies," Brown, the first British prime minister to visit the copper-rich South American country, told a news conference with Bachelet in Santiago.
"We will monitor those countries and name and shame if necessary countries that are not following free trade practices, and we will work to underpin the trading system of the world with additional resources," he added.
"We have got to begin again and remake our institutions. We have got to reshape the rules of the financial system," Brown said at a seminar on the sidelines of the Progressive Leaders' Summit in Santiagfo - `We need a new IMF'.
"If the trillions of dollars that are being mobilised to overcome the international economic crisis are used in a wise and creative way, we can today respond internationally to create decent jobs for thousands," Bachelet told the seminar, adding it would also help reduce poverty and environmental risks.
US vice president Joe Biden, Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are also attending the Chile meeting, along with Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez.
