Group of 8 want all members to stay in the euro
WORLD leaders backed keeping Greece in the Eurozone over the weekend and vowed to take all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while revitalising a global economy increasingly threatened by Europe’s debt crisis.
A summit of the G8 leading industrialised nations came down solidly in favour of a push to balance European austerity – an approach long driven by German chancellor Angela Merkel – with a new dose of US-style stimulus seen as vital to healing ailing Eurozone economies. But it was clear that divisions remained.
“We commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognising that the right measures are not the same for each of us,” the leaders said in a joint statement issued at their meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
In the first line of their final economic communiqué, they essentially endorsed calls to broaden Europe’s focus beyond German-backed fiscal belt-tightening, calling it “our imperative” to promote growth and jobs.
Anxious to quell investor fears, the G8 said: “We reaffirm our interest in Greece remaining in the Eurozone while respecting its commitments.” But leaders offered no specific prescription for extracting Athens from its worsening crisis.
In another move to shore up shaky global growth, the G8 leaders said they would monitor oil markets closely and stand ready to seek an increase in supplies if needed. While crude oil prices have declined by 10 per cent over the past month, the threat of tighter sanctions on Iran loom next month.
The G8 said the global economic recovery shows promising signs but “significant headwinds persist”.
G8 SUMMIT: IN BRIEF
■ Reaffirmed belief that Greece should stay in the Eurozone – but offered no specifics on how this should be achieved
■ Obama stressed job creation and economic growth as the “top priority”
■ G8 will monitor oil markets and stand to increase supplies if needed
■ Called for concrete steps from a dinner meeting of EU leaders later this week and an EU summit in June