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Obama urges G-20 Nations to continue stimulus; Cautions about a Double-dip

By Anonymous

From President Obama: Letter from the President to G-20 Leaders

Our highest priority in Toronto must be to safeguard and strengthen the recovery. We worked exceptionally hard to restore growth; we cannot let it falter or lose strength now.

This means that we should reaffirm our unity of purpose to provide the policy support necessary to keep economic growth strong. It is essential that we have a self-sustaining recovery that creates the good jobs that our people need. In fact, should confidence in the strength of our recoveries diminish, we should be prepared to respond again as quickly and as forcefully as needed to avoid a slowdown in economic activity.

He also cautioned about global imbalances:

A strong and sustainable global recovery needs to be built on balanced global demand. Significant weaknesses exist across G-20 economies. I am concerned by weak private sector demand and continued heavy reliance on exports by some countries with already large external surpluses. Our ability to achieve a durable global recovery depends on our ability to achieve a pattern of global demand growth that avoids the imbalances of the past. ... I also want to underscore that market-determined exchange rates are essential to global economic vitality. The signals that flexible exchange rates send are necessary to support a strong and balanced global economy.

Obama was clearly writing about China.

Obama argued for stimulus now - while the economy is weak - and fiscal discipline over the medium term:

We need to commit to fiscal adjustments that stabilize debt-to-GDP ratios at appropriate levels over the medium term.

Full post as published by Calculated Risk on June 18, 2010 (boomark / email).