A GLOBAL CONCLUSION

by RAY FLEMING
NO nation got everything it wanted at the G20 meeting in London yesterday - but when did any international gathering end in such a utopian way? The important outcome was that the global community as a whole showed its determination to act together to repair the damage done by the present recession and to take measures to prevent the danger of anything similar happening again. Understandably, there are differences of emphasis about the actions required to achieve those objectives but the final communiqué made allowances for these and kept open the possibility of re-consideration of measures that have not been adopted for the moment. WIth a communiqué not an hour old at the time of writing it would be pointless to attempt a detailed analysis of the measures agreed on. But it is clear that a huge amount of money is to be injected in the world economy by the International Monetary Fund in such a way as to ensure that it benefits countries most in need, that tax havens are going to be exposed, that hedge funds will be subject to close monitoring, that banking practices will be put under review and reform, that countries introducing restrictionist policies will be named and shamed - and that a major effort will be made to kick-start the stalled Doha Round of trade talks.