Continue stimulus as recovery may be long-haul, says Pranab

India today asked the global community to continue with stimulus packages, as economic recovery was likely to be a long-haul. It also called for reforms in the IMF and the World Bank to give a bigger role to emerging economies in economic policy making.

“It appears that recovery will be unsteady and long-drawn, with growth in employment lagging. Maintaining policy stimulus is crucial for anchoring the recovery,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the annual meeting of IMF-World Bank in the Turkish city.

He said balancing the stimulus against the risks of inflation and threats to fiscal viability was a key short-term challenge. “The timing and sequencing of exit strategies assume importance,” Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee was speaking as both the IMF and the World Bank began their two-day meeting, looking beyond the crisis and at managing a global economic system in a way that would make it less prone to downturns.

Pointing out that there was an unfinished agenda on repairing the financial system, he said the perimeter of regulation had to be expanded.