G20 outcomes offer hope but little detail

17 Nov, 2008 05:10 / Updated 16 years ago

At the emergency summit in Washington, G20 leaders agreed to tighten regulations, clarify accounting rules and increase the transparency of the financial markets. But how to go about it remains unclear.

The big bang many hoped for at the G20 summit didn’t happen. But that’s no reason to feel dissatisfied according to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. “I think the results are quite positive.  All the participating countries have demonstrated the will and the desire to overcome the crisis that perhaps has not reached its peak yet. That’s why we have to double our efforts.” The efforts will focus on “better identifying vulnerabilities” by improving transparency and disclosure, and restructuring the IMF and the World Bank. But when it comes to specific details, the leaders didn’t offer much.  Evgeny Nadorshin, Chief Economist at Trust Bank says the action plan is too vague to be impressive: “Its really difficult to understand how that might work and how that might be implemented and how deep those people who will be implementing it are ready to go.  But still there is space for hope, which a lot of investors lack recently.” And while the hopes for a brand new global financial order could not have been realized over a one-day meeting, the summit proved that the greater role of emerging economies like Russia is the new reality of the 21st century. World waits for answers from G20 on financial chaos Razgulay posts 1H 2008 Net Profit of $26.9 million Rouble woes mount as Central Bank defence falters