Leaders of the world's top 20 economies, including India, on Thursday appeared to have narrowed down their differences over key issues of regulation and strengthening financial system to rescue the global economy facing the worst crisis since 1930s. "We are within a few hours, I think, of agreeing a global plan for economic recovery and reform. . .," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the G-20 leaders met to chalk out the finer details. India, along with France and Germany, is pitching for stronger regulation and improved supervision of the financial system to prevent a repeat of the current crisis. Meawnhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that India's economic growth in 2008-09 is estimated to have fallen below 7 per cent and is likely to remain at that level in the current fiscal on the back of fiscal and monetary initiatives. "Our growth rate, which was close to 9 per cent in the previous five years, will fall below 7 per cent in 2008-09 we hope to be able to achieve a similar growth rate in 2009-10, with continuous reliance on monetary and fiscal policy," he said in his remarks at the dinner hosted for leaders of the G-20 Summit in London.French President Nicolas Sarkozy had earlier threatened to walk away from the G-20 Summit in case regulatory rules on bankers were not tightened. Amidst growing public outcry as seen in widespread protests on London strees, both France and Germany are against giving blank cheques to the financial institutions and banks. US President Barack Obama had earlier said that Washington had "some accounting to do" for the crisis, even though he was not in complete agreement with the stand taken by France and Germany on regulations.
Manmoham Singh also urged the world leaders to shun protectionism and instead wanted them free investment flows in a regulated environment to prevent recurrence of the crisis. There also appeared a growing realisation to free world trade, with Summit sources saying Doha Round trade talks of the WTO could be revived. India has also sought strengthening of the International Monetary Fund monetarily in order to increase flow of resources to developing economies. Sources said the leaders are working on a plan that would shore up IMF's resources by USD 500 billion for funding the global economy, particularly those of poor countries - hit hard by the meltdown.The G-20 countries, including India, Brazil, South Africa and France, also raised the issue of controls on tax havens that may form part of the final agreement. Obama, who is on his first visit to Britain, asked the G-20 leaders to help cope with the economic meltdown, saying "we can only meet this challenge together."
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