No room for complacency on economy, IMF chief warns
LONDON (AFP) - - World leaders are "just seeing the end of the tunnel" following months of economic turmoil, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Saturday after a meeting of G20 finance ministers.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said there was good progress on issues including bonuses but tackling the issue in depth "takes time".
"I think we made good progress. I'm impressed by the consensus but I'm still waiting for strong measures to be implemented," he said on bonuses, which had threatened to split the US and Britain on the one hand and European countries led by France on the other.
"It takes time. As you may imagine, there's been a rather interesting discussion on this," he added.
Strauss-Kahn added that there was no room for complacency on the general economic picture, raising the spectre of rising unemployment ahead.
"We're just seeing the end of the tunnel in terms of economic problems," he said. "Of course the peak of (unemployment) will depend on different countries but it's not for now, it's maybe one year from now".
On talk of starting to wind down emergency financial support for economies, he said there was consensus that it was not the right time now although it was appropriate to discuss the issue.
"Everybody recognises today that even if we need to discuss our exit strategy, it's not the time to implement exit strategy. it's the time to go on supporting demand until private demand will be strong enough so that public demand may decrease," he said.
At April's London G20 summit, world leaders pledged to treble the resources available to the IMF to 750 billion dollars.
Strauss-Kahn announced Saturday that the figure received had now topped 500 billion dollars. "It has been done," he told reporters.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said there was good progress on issues including bonuses but tackling the issue in depth "takes time".
"I think we made good progress. I'm impressed by the consensus but I'm still waiting for strong measures to be implemented," he said on bonuses, which had threatened to split the US and Britain on the one hand and European countries led by France on the other.
"It takes time. As you may imagine, there's been a rather interesting discussion on this," he added.
Strauss-Kahn added that there was no room for complacency on the general economic picture, raising the spectre of rising unemployment ahead.
"We're just seeing the end of the tunnel in terms of economic problems," he said. "Of course the peak of (unemployment) will depend on different countries but it's not for now, it's maybe one year from now".
On talk of starting to wind down emergency financial support for economies, he said there was consensus that it was not the right time now although it was appropriate to discuss the issue.
"Everybody recognises today that even if we need to discuss our exit strategy, it's not the time to implement exit strategy. it's the time to go on supporting demand until private demand will be strong enough so that public demand may decrease," he said.
At April's London G20 summit, world leaders pledged to treble the resources available to the IMF to 750 billion dollars.
Strauss-Kahn announced Saturday that the figure received had now topped 500 billion dollars. "It has been done," he told reporters.
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