Protectionism: It’s no aid to trade

"Coordinated G20 policy actions right after the onset of the 2008–09 crisis were effective in preventing a much deeper and more prolonged recession in the global economy." Shahrokh Fardoust explains, "Although the pace of recovery has been sluggish and unemployment rates remain high in many countries, overall growth has been positive." Fardoust who served as the director of strategy and operations in Development Economics at the World Bank spells out, "After a decline of about 4% in 2009, real GDP in the advanced economies grew 3% in 2010 and 1.6% in 2011. As a group, emerging and developing economies, which experienced a sharp slowdown in 2009, grew 7.4% in 2010 and 6.1% in 2011. This rebound in large part reflected these countries' relatively healthy initial economic conditions, which allowed them to implement countercyclical policies. This resulted in multiple growth poles, which helped support the global recovery." Fardoust, the co-editor of Postcrisis Growth and Development: A Development Agenda for the G20, co-published by the World Bank and Academic Foundation, underlines in an email interaction with Sarika Malhotra how the G20 can play a useful role through coordinated global policy measures in response to an acute crisis. "G20 policy actions since 2008 have tended to focus on short-term crisis response. Going forward, more attention needs to be given to structural reforms that lead to greater investment and a more rapid pace of growth."

A transformed landscape

The 2008–09 global crisis has fundamentally changed the landscape for finance, trade and growth over the next decade. The immediate outlook is affected by the downside risk that the eurozone will fall into recession. Recently released reports by international financial institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international forecasters warn that global recovery remains fragile and that many advanced economies are likely to face a long of period of slow growth, high unemployment and significant excess capacity in key economic sectors as they face large fiscal deficits and high debt levels.

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