India for continuance of stimulus package

At G-20 Summit,India will seek continuance of stimulus devised to get economy out of crisis.

India will seek continuance of the stimulus package that was devised to get the global economy out of the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh pitching at the same time strongly against any attempts at protectionism and advocating reforms of the international financial institutions.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,who leads the Indian delegation at the summit being hosted by President Barack Obama,will voice developing countries views that the advanced countries should return to the trend growth and stabilization of the banking and financial sectors as it affected exports,capital flows and investment of the emerging economies.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia,who is India’s sherpa,National Security Adviser M K Narayanan,Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla are among the members of the Indian delegation which attending the summit that which will be attended by world leaders including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown,German Chancellor Angela Merkel,French President Sarkozy among others. The summit represents 90 per cent of the world’s GDP,80 per cent of the world trade and two-thirds of humanity.

The summit is important for emerging economies like India,which have been affected by the global economic crisis not of its making,to tell the world that there was need to continue the stimulus package that was agreed at the Washington summit last November and a decision to pump in USD 1.1 trillion was decided at the London Summit in April last.

Economies still need a large dose of stimulus for recovery and to return to trend growth,Indian officials say.

Officials of the Indian delegation said the continuance of the stimulus package was in the interest of the poor countries and the emerging economies and efforts would be made to impress on the advanced economies that they should not adopt any strategy to exit from it. It should not be “business as usual” for them in view of the green shoots of recovery seen in some economies.

India will voice strongly the need for avoiding the temptation to resort to protectionism by the developed countries under the present crisis. “This is an important issue and India will reflect the views of the developing and emerging economies in this regard,” the officials said.